Divine Chocolate Fudge Cake
So my last post was for the vanilla polka dot middle layer of a 3 tiered birthday extravaganza, today it's the chocolate fudge cake layer - it looked like this:

The original recipe came from Martha Stewart and you can find it here but I have modified it a bit (to make it more user-friendly with the ingredients) and altered the method slightly. Now, I didn't take photos of the various stages of making the cake because...well...there's only one stage really!  Please note that the original recipe makes 2 x 23cm (9") layers whereas I made one big cake in a 28cm (11") spring form tin. One of the most brilliant things about this cake is that it is SO moist and fudgy that the left-overs from the birthday party have lasted in a tin for about 10 days here.  I know...who wants to eat 10 day old cake - but trust me, it is still perfectly wonderful as it is and if you nuke a slice for a few seconds you have the most outrageous chocolate fudge pudding type dessert.  And why would there be any left-overs in the first place?  Well, because this cake will EASILY feed 20 people.  I didn't realise that when I made it, my bad, but I'm not overly disappointed either!!

For the cake:
1 3/4 cups good quality cocoa (not drinking chocolate)
3 3/4 cups self raising flour (or all purpose flour and add 2 tsps baking powder)
3 3/4 cups caster or superfine sugar
2 tsps kosher salt (or 1 tsp table salt)
4 large eggs
1 3/4 cups warm water (it should feel neither cold nor hot on your skin)
2 cups whole milk
2 tsps lemon juice or white vinegar
1 cup vegetable oil (sunflower or canola are probably best)
2 tsps good vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 160 C / 325 F. Grease and line a 28cm (11") spring form tin. I like to use baking strips with sponge cakes, if you do too, soak them in water and pin around the outside of the cake tin.
2. Add the lemon juice or vinegar to the milk and leave it to stand - it will curdle and thicken slightly and behave like buttermilk in the recipe.
3. Sift the cocoa, flour, sugar, and salt together into a large mixing bowl.  
4. If you have a free standing mixer: place the eggs, water, soured milk, oil and vanilla in the bowl of the mixer and beat on low for a minute or so until everything is well combined.  If you're using a hand held mixer: place all the 'wet' ingredients in a large bowl and beat for a couple of minutes.
5. With the mixer still running, add the combined dry ingredients in 3 batches making sure the mixture is well combined before adding the next batch.  (The original recipe just places everything in one bowl then beats on medium - I found that I had little lumps of flour that would NOT be mixed in however hard I tried, they floated on the surface of the finished mixture and I had to scoop them out to avoid an unpleasant crust on the finished cake). 
6. Pour into your prepared tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 40 minutes. Carefully cover the top of the tin with a piece of foil and bake for a further 60 minutes or until the cake passes the clean skewer test. 
7. Place the cooked cake on a cooking rack, remove the foil and leave to cool 30 minutes before removing the outer ring of the tin.  Leave to cool completely.

For the icing:
200g / 8oz or 2 sticks of unsalted butter - soft but not melting
400g / 14oz icing or confectioners sugar - sifted
100g / 4oz good quality cocoa
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tblspn espresso coffee (this can be replaced with milk if you prefer)

1. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and beat slowly until everything is combined, then on medium for a couple of minutes until you have the consistency you require.
2. Spread on the top and sides of the cooled cake.  If you prefer: you could slice the cake in half and place the icing in the middle and on the top of the cake only for a more traditional tea-time look.

When you cut the cake it is dense, moist and intensely chocolatey - apologies for the horrible lighting in the photo below, somehow I made the cake look purple!  Enjoy this with a crowd of people...or on your own, in the bath, with a good book!

 

Bob The Builder, Cake Pops, and a Polka Dot Cake!

Following on from the cake pop frenzy there's a Polka Dot Cake which has been doing the rounds on the web - you an see the original here, but please know that it makes a 15cm or 6" diameter cake which is neither use nor ornament at a children's party!  Plus, the ingredients and instructions didn't work at all with my baking equipment. Essentially, you make a whole bunch of cake pop balls (the bake it yourself method, not the mixing slab cake with icing method...you'll see below) and bury them in cake batter so that when you cut the cake it's full of brightly coloured polka dots. Now, I like to flatter myself that I can bake reasonably well, but those little cake pop balls have been my nemesis for months now.  I should just explain that most of the cake pop recipes on the web use metal baking pans...and mine are silicone.  Most of the recipes use cake mix from a box...and in the normal course of events I'd rather get my fingers caught in the mixer than use those things. So I have been trying (off and on) for about 6 months to get this cake done. Well, with a LOT of compromise on my part and a great deal of trial and error, I finally did it...just in time for my youngest's 2nd birthday party - no pressure or anything!  The polka dot cake is the middle layer of the extravaganza pictured above, I'll be posting the bottom layer (chocolate fudge) in a week or so.

So let's get started: first you will need your cake pop balls. I used 2 sets of silicone moulds each making 20 cake pops. The first thing you have to do is ignore or substantially modify the cake mix instructions.  You need to make a batter that will produce really firm but moist cake (because it's going to be baked twice) and home made sponge cake gives you a texture that is either too airy to hold together, or too coarse a crumb for the finished effect when you cut the cake. I had to use a mix people...embarassing, but there you are.  And the final indignity...in one of my attempts to improve the texture of the finished cake I discovered that the gelatin in instant pudding is the answer (it's a long story how I arrived at that conclusion, I won't bore you with it).
For the cake pops:
1 x 250g or 9oz box vanilla cake mix
60ml or 1/4 cup vegetable oil (the packet said 60g or 2oz butter)
3 eggs (the packet said 2 eggs)
125ml  or 1/2 cup milk (the packet said 1/2 cup water)
1 packet of instant vanilla pudding (like Angel Delight or equivalent)
3 or 4 gel colourings to suit you or the theme of your party

1. Preheat the oven to 160 C or 325 F.  Brush or spray your silicone cake pop moulds with oil then dust them liberally with all purpose flour.  Knock out the excess flour over the sink.  Place all the ingredients except the colourings in a bowl and beat on medium for 2 minutes in a free standing mixer, or 3 minutes with a hand held mixer.  
2. Divide the mixture equally between separate bowls and add the gel colouring one drop at a time (mixing well each time) until you have the shade you require.
3. Place the bottom half of the moulds (the half without the little holes in) side by side on a baking sheet. Spoon the mixture into the bottom half of the moulds until each depression is just full (but not heaped or over full). Clip on the top half of the mould making sure it is properly and securely closed.  Place the baking sheet on the centre shelf in the oven for 15 minutes.  
4. After 15 minutes check the moulds and if you can see a small amount of the batter on top of the mould or visible in the little hole then you're fine.  If not, give them another couple of minutes baking time. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and leave the whole lot alone for a good 30 minutes.  Resist the urge to have a peek...I know how difficult that is...because you risk tearing the cake in half if you lift the lid too early.
5. After the 30 minutes, carefully lift one corner of the mould and gently peel it back to reveal the cooked cake pops.  If the mould looks like it might be sticking to any of them, gently pinch the offending part of the mould and the cake pop should be released. Don't worry that some of the cake pops seem to have joined hands in the middle of the mould...we'll be trimming them later. Leave them for a further 5 minutes then gently squeeze and roll the lower half of the cake pop out of the mould.  You'll probably have a bunch of nearly spherical cake balls like this:

You'll note the smattering of flour on the surface of this one.  That's a good thing, it means the DIY non-stick lining (oil + flour) I applied to the mould actually did its job.  You should have seen the carnage when I didn't non-stick-ify the mould!  To turn this into a more lovely ball shape, just trim around its equator with a pair of scissors like this:

and when you've trimmed all of them, you'll have a collection like this:

The next step is to turn them into a layer cake.  Assuming the cake pops are completely cool by now, you can carry straight on (well the oven is already hot after all!), but if you'd rather do the next stage another time these will stay moist and yummy in an airtight tin for 2 days and they freeze beautifully - just be sure to thaw them and bring them to room temperature before using them in a layer cake or the batter won't stick to them...I mentioned I'd been at this recipe for about 6 months didn't I ?!?
For the layer cake:
2 x 250g or 9oz boxes of cake mix
Remaining ingredients as per the instructions on the packet.

1. Preheat the oven to the temperature indicated on the cake mix box. Grease and line 2 x 20cm or 8" cake tins.  Straight sided ones are best, mine aren't and it requires a bit of judicious trimming as you'll see in a moment.
2. When the batter is ready, spread a small amount in the base of each tin.  I have noticed that the cooked cake balls can 'float' a bit if the layer of raw cake batter is too thick so really just add enough to coat the bottom of the tin and no more.
3. Place the cooked cake balls in the tin fairly close together to ensure that each slice of the finished cake will contain a contrast colour (i.e. you don't want to be able to slice between them so that you only see white cake) like this:
4. Try to arrange the colours so that each slice of the finished cake will have different polka dots.  I could probably have squeezed a couple more in there now that I look at it, but use your judgement. 
5. Cover each cake ball with a tablespoon or so of batter, ensure that each cooked cake ball is completely covered.  Then spoon the remaining batter in between - both tins should look like this when they're finished and ready for the oven:
6. Now, you might be able to see some air bubbles in the cake batter above.  I recommend popping them with a toothpick or small skewer. Don't rap the pan on the bench top as it can make the batter slide off the cake balls!  
7. Place the tins on a baking sheet in the centre of the oven and bake as per the instructions on the packet mix (for me this was 25 minutes) until the top of the cake is springy and it passes the clean skewer test - make sure you poke the skewer in between the cake balls to test for done-ness. 
8. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes then gently turn out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. 

If you need to trim the edge of each cake, wrap it first in greaseproof or parchment paper, then in foil and freeze it for 30 mins or so.  You can then trim the edges without the cake falling apart or becoming unecessarily 'crumby'.

 

This is the cake after trimming - you can just see one of the blue cake pops at the edge there.  Again, if you're not ready to use the cake right away, it will keep in an airtight tin for a couple of days and it freezes beautifully.

I coated this cake with buttercream and then added fondant brickwork, trees and bushes... so that it looked like something out of Sunflower Valley (I know, what you'll do for your kids!!) but a simple buttercream frosting would work equally well with a berry jam in the middle.

Simple buttercream frosting:

225g or 8oz unsalted butter - very soft but not melting

500g or 1lb 1oz icing/confectioners sugar - sifted

2 tsps vanilla extract

A little milk if necessary

1. Place all the ingredients except the milk in a bowl, beat slowly to combine (so that clouds of icing sugar don't go everywhere!).
2. Increase the speed to medium and beat for a good 3-5 minutes until the frosting is light and fluffy. If the mixture seems a little too firm gradually add milk 1 tsp at a time until it is soft enough to spread (or pipe...as you prefer).  Add gel colouring as you wish.
3. Place one cake upside down on a serving plate (or board), spread berry jam on the top surface. Spread about 1/2 cup of frosting on top of the jam then place the second cake (also upside down) on top. Gently press to ensure the 2 halves are stuck together. 
4. Spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides of the cake with an offset spatula and decorate as your imagination dictates!

And this is what it looks like when you cut it:

Yes I know, I should have chilled the cake first, and/or used a sharper knife, but you get the picture.  Oh, and for the grass effect, I just placed 4 tblspns shredded coconut in a zip lock bag with a good squirt of liquid green food colouring (the kind you get at the supermarket) and scrunched the bag for a couple of minutes until all the coconut was green!

I hope you give this a go - it sounds fiddly but it really isn't, there are just a few stages to it.  And now that I've made all the mistakes for you (!) you'll get it right first time!

Peanut Cookies - Gluten Free and Slightly Miraculous!

So here's a cookie in the "Free" series I mentioned in my Banana Bread post a few weeks ago.  They're gluten free because they contain no flour...at all...not even GF flour.  I know...how is that possible?  Not only is it possible, I think I prefer them to their 'normal' cousins!  Generally I don't buy biscuits (cookies) because they tend to contain all sorts of ingredients that I just don't recognise.  My rule of thumb is that if the ingredient isn't in my pantry it's probably best avoided...I know, it's a slightly Luddite approach but I really can't spend all day on Google investigating trade names and chemical formulae!

My nearly-5-year-old absolutely LOVES baking so it's an activity we can do together which benefits everyone...win-win-win-win people!  Oh, I nearly forgot to mention: they take 28 minutes to make plus 30 minutes of fridge time.  That's about the limit of a 5 year old's attention span so these get made fairly often round here.  The original recipe can be found here though I have tinkered with it a bit - I just can't help myself!  Now, when you read the ingredients list you might think I've left something out...that this combination can't possibly work.  I really haven't and it really does.  Please trust me!

Ingredients:
1 cup crunchy or super crunchy peanut butter at room temperature
1/2 cup caster or superfine sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips (morsels)

1. Place everything in the bowl of a free standing mixer and switch on for about 2 minutes until everything is mixed well.  I have one of those paddle attachments which scrapes the edges of the bowl but if you don't, scrape down after about a minute then continue.  This mixture is soft enough to mix with a wooden spoon too, I just love using my mixer!
2. Place the mixture (in the mixing bowl) in the fridge for about 30 minutes until it is firm.
3. Preheat the oven to 150 C or 325 F and line 2 baking sheets with greaseproof or parchment paper. 
4. Once the dough is firm, take a small ice cream scoop - one of those with a squeezy handle that releases the contents of the scoop - and pack it with dough by scooping the mixture then dragging it up the inside of the bowl.  The excess should fall back into the bowl and you can release the shaped dough directly onto a lined baking sheet. Space them about 5cm or 2" apart.  They won't spread much as there is no flour or leavening agent.  If you don't have a small enough scoop, just pinch off pieces of the dough and roll them between your hands but you need to work quickly so the warmth of your hands doesn't soften the dough too much.
5. Apparently, the traditional pattern on a peanut cookie is cross hatch made with a fork.  I just happened to have a little masher (it's been redundant since I stopped making baby food!) in the utensil pot beside me so I used that. Please feel free to use a fork or any other kitchen implement that calls you.

Bake for 20 minutes then leave to cool on the tray for at least 5 minutes.  This is really important as the cookies are a bit fragile when they are first baked.  Finally transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.  They crisp up considerably during the cooling process so if you try a warm one (as I did) please don't worry that it's a bit soft.

This recipe make about 18-20 cookies depending on the size of your scoop...and how much of the dough is pilfered by little fingers before it even reaches the oven!

Enjoy with a cuppa, or a glass of cold milk. It's a mouthful of YUM!!

Cherry Pie - And A Literary Classic:

I'm a big fan of Pinterest (you may have seen the "follow me" button on the right of each post) and an even bigger fan of Pintester.  Now, Pintester (a.k.a. Sonja Foust) takes a couple of popular pins each week and tests them to see if they actually work.  Some do, some don't.  Either way, her blog is a good read, and saves you from wasting time on cooking/craft/health & beauty instructions that just don't work.  I should just add a word of caution - the articles and the ensuing comments can contain some fairly ripe language, so if you're easily offended I recommend you don't read it.  If you're a bit more down to earth, please head on over to Pintester.com and laugh along with the rest of us!

Today we're taking part in a bloggy link-up of slightly epic proportions and here is the link: http://pintester.com/2013/05/the-pintester-movement-craft-all-the-things.

Sonja has organised the Pintester Movement for 31st May where around 150 of us are testing Pinterest pins that we've had in our "Must Try This" file for ages and just haven't quite got around to.  And for me...this means pastry.  I should make a small confession here: pastry is one of the very few things in the world that I find a bit daunting.  I have never had much success with it (hard as concrete, soggy bottoms, tasteless etc etc) and believe me, I have tried.  Over the years (decades) several people of a geriatric nature have told me I'll never be able to make it as my hands are too warm...well pardon me for having good circulation!  So duly encouraged by Sonja to 'step outside your comfort zone' I pulled on my big girl knickers and gave it my best shot...and here's why:

One of my earliest food memories is of cherry pie, eaten while sitting on the bench top in a small commercial kitchen. In fact, I can probably trace my fascination with all things kitchen gadgety back to that moment too.  My early years were spent in rural Warwickshire where everything did double duty - including the staff canteen/restaurant where my Dad worked. So most mornings the place was filled with paint, glue, mini trampolines and squealing kids...and as lunchtime approached everything was stacked away and the place was transformed into an orderly grown-up tables and chairs type cafe. This particular day, the cook had made an extra cherry pie and invited the playgroup staff (which included my Mum) into the kitchen for a slice. It was the yummiest thing I had ever tasted. Obviously...being more than slightly obsessive by nature...I have been in search of the perfect cherry pie ever since. The original pin from which I took the pastry recipe can be found Here, it's actually a recipe for strawberry pie - which looks amazing - but it's winter here in Oz and I would need to sell a kidney or one of the kids to buy a kilo (2lbs) of fresh strawberries...hence the cherries.

For the pie crust:
2 1/2 cups plain/all purpose flour
225g / 8 oz or 2 sticks cold unsalted butter (yes I know, it's a LOT) cut into little cubes
1 tsp salt
1tsp sugar
6-10 tblspns iced water
The original recipe uses a food processor and I don't have one, but I do have a fabulous free standing mixer so I thought that would probably do. Taking into account all the "advice" I've received about warm hands and warm utensils, I measured everything into the mixer bowl, added the paddle attachment and placed the whole lot in the fridge for 30 mins.

Then I mixed it on slow for about 2 minutes.  It didn't work, I think you really need the cutting action of a food processor blade.  So, I ditched the paddle attachment and switched to my trusty old blender: it worked perfectly. 

See those little lumps in the flour?  They're butter, and they're pea-sized, so I'm back on track.  Next, I added 6 tblspns of the iced water and mixed it with a spatula...sawdust people, sawdust.  So I added the other 4 tblspns and mixed again.  This is what it looked like:

Not a whole lot better, but I was testing the pin so I stuck to its instructions precisely.  Do you see a slightly bigger wodge of dough in the bottom left of the photo?  That's the result of my "pinch test". According to the original, you take a small lump of dough and squish it as in the photo below:

If the dough holds together, it's moist enough.  Well, it was holding, so I considered it done.  I tipped the whole lot out on the bench and kneaded a couple of times to bring it all together.  I say "kneaded", but really I just scooped the piles of crumbs into the middle and squished...hard.  I don't think you're supposed to be that rough with pastry, but at least it all came together finally.  I cut the dough into 2 slightly unequal pieces, cling wrapped them both and put them in the fridge.  The original recipe says to chill the dough for at least an hour but up to a couple of days...which suited me fine as I have to do my baking during nap time and that was coming to an end!  So, fast forward about 23 hours:

Switch on the oven to 200 C  or  425 F and place a baking sheet on the middle shelf.  Next, I rolled the larger piece of dough straight from the fridge - no coming to room temperature required. But what is required is plenty of flour on the bench and more on hand to flour the rolling pin often. My pin has those convenient little discs you can slot on the ends to make sure your dough is both even and a pre-determined thickness.  I had the 3mm discs on which I think is 1/8" in imperial.  I also happen to know that the rolling pin is 35cm (14") long so I didn't worry about meauring my 14" round as per the recipe, I just kept rolling until a groove appeared in the edge of the dough - see that horizontal one at the bottom of the photo? You can roll the dough around the pin to lift it into the pie tin, but because it's still cold you can just as easily lift it by hand - as I did.  Now, I have a fabulous pie tin (thank you Mum!) which is in 2 parts.  The inside tin has holes punched in the base and sides, and that sits in an outside tin which is solid all the way round...for the first part of the baking process I used both tins together.

I always manage to put a finger nail through my pie crusts, so with the dough draped over the combined tins I pinched off a bit of the excess and used it to push the rolled out dough against the edges of the tin.  No holes in this one thank you very much...which is really important when you're about to add a liquid filling!  Then I just used kitchen scissors to snip off the excess around the edge.

Next I rolled the smaller piece of dough - again, straight from the fridge - until it was 3mm or 1/4" thick and cut strips with a ravioli wheel.  You can just eyeball the width of each strip, I only used the ruler as a straight edge to cut against. You'll need about 10 strips for a 23cm (9") pie tin.

For the filling:
2 x 700g jars (49 oz total) pitted sour cherries in their own juice
1/3 cup sugar
2 tblspns cornflour
2 tblspns of the cherry juice

Strain the cherries through a sieve and reserve the juice.  Place them in a mixing bowl and add the remaining ingredients. Stir well to make sure the cornflour is properly mixed with the juice.  Pile the filling into the prepared pie crust.  Now comes the decorative bit!

Brush the edge of the pie crust with either a little milk or some egg wash - I used milk. Next, take 5 of the pastry strips and lay them vertically over the filling so that each end hangs over the edge of the pie. Press the top of each strip gently but firmly so that it adheres to the pie crust underneath.  Now, lift up the second and fourth strips, carefully folding them back on themselves (as in the left hand photo above). Place a strip of pastry horizontally across the pie - it will lay on top of the first, third and fifth vertical strips - press each end of the horizontal strip to secure it...see my hefty great thumb prints in the photos above! Fold the second and fourth strips back down. Then lift the first, third and fifth strips back on themselves, lay another horizontal strip across the pie and press the ends to secure them.  Repeat until you reach the lower edge of the pie. There you go...a woven lattice.

Trim the excess off around the edge of the pie - either with a knife, or I prefer to use kitchen scissors - then press the edge down with a fork all the way round.  This disguises the joins a bit and makes sure the ends are secured.  Brush the pastry top with milk (or egg wash) and bake for 30 minutes, by which time the top will be nice and brown but the bottom will still be soggy.  Cover the pie with a piece of foil being careful to only cover the top - you still want the sides of the tin exposed to the heat. Now, remember my 2 part tin?  Well, the pastry is 'set' at this point, so I lifted the inner tin out and placed it directly back on the baking sheet in the oven.  The heat gets through the holes in the sides and bottom and allows the crust to crisp up.  Bake again for 20 mins.  Place on a cooling rack and remove the foil.

See that?  That's a pie that worked.  I've made a pie that worked!

And you see the edge of the pie in that picture below?

That's a beautifully laminated pie crust.  It means the water in the butter turned to steam and made airy lttle pockets in the dough as it baked.  It's enough to bring a tear to the eye!

Now here's the comparison: mine on the left, the original pin on the right.  It's possible that I'm having a proud parent moment - you know, where all parents think their child is the most beautiful - but I have to say, I think I did a pretty good job here!

The original recipe says to leave the pie to cool for 3 hours.  Yeah.  Like that was ever going to happen.  I cut a slice purely to take a photo for you, so you could see that it's crispy, flaky, and slightly oozy...just like it should be.  And now, I'm about to have a Proustian moment, I have found my "Temps Perdu" and I didn't even need the Linden Tea. This pin definitely worked, I recommend it to you, and I recommend you find something you've been putting off for a while purely because it seems a bit daunting and just DO IT, you'll feel brilliant!

Now...I have a load of cherry juice left over.  What to do...what to do...Cherrytini, Chergarita?

"Free" Banana and Walnut Bread:

Hello...I'm back!  It's been ages since my last post and I do apologise, we've had all sorts of family things going on here and my little blog had to take a back seat for a bit.  But that doesn't mean I haven't been baking, oh by jimminy no...I just haven't been writing it all up.  Now, one of the things I've been experimenting with is what I call "free cooking", by which I mean sugar free, gluten free, fat free, dairy free etc. etc.  Partly to address allergy requirements, partly to address lifestyle choices, but mostly because when it comes to fat and sugar: less is more (providing the finished article is still completely yum!).  Now, hands up if you knew that you can substitute apple sauce for butter or oil...nope me neither.  But you'd be amazed what you can find out when you start looking. Please don't panic there will still be butter and sugar a-plenty in the weeks and months to come...but there will also be "free" recipes sprinkled amongst them.

And so to the banana bread: now, there are times when the bananas in my fruit bowl look like they have just lost the will to live.  Sometimes I throw them in the freezer for future use in a smoothy (yay, how thrifty of me) but now and again I just send those suckers to the great fruit bowl in the sky (boo, wasteful).  But no more...here comes a recipe that actually NEEDS them to be squishy...even to the point of soupy.  And I'm dedicating it to my Dad, who never met a manky banana he wouldn't eat!  I found this recipe on the web and you can link to the orginal version here.  I added some walnuts because it needed the texture but you could leave those out if "nut free" is a requirement.

Ingredients:
2 cups wholemeal/wholewheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt or 1/4 tsp table salt
1/2 cup of good sharp apple sauce (or stewed bramleys, you need that saucy texture)
3/4 cup runny honey
2 eggs
3 bananas...the mankier the better
2/3 cup chopped walnuts**

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 F / 170 C. Either grease and flour a 9x5 loaf tin, or line it with a paper liner.
2. In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. I like to use a whisk because it adds air to the mixture.
3. If it's a cold day place your jar of honey in a bowl of hot water for a couple of minutes just to make it a bit runnier.
4. In a large jug (or bowl) mash the bananas with the back of a fork then mix together with the apple sauce, honey, and eggs. 
5. Pour all the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and stir well, but don't over mix it or the bread will be tough.  Stir in the chopped walnuts.
6. Pour the batter into your prepared tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 60 minutes or until it passes the clean skewer test. 
7. Allow the bread to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes then turn it out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

** You really don't need to be painfully accurate on this particular measurement.  I just found that 1/2 cup wasn't enough and a full cup was really too much so I compromised.  Please, add the quantity that makes you happy!

Now, much as it pained me, I managed to make this loaf last 4 days (unwrapped) in an airtight tin with no loss of texture or flavour.  And it was in and out of that tin over the course of the 4 days I can tell you!  But in case you were wondering, the bread part of it freezes beautifully well - though the nuts had a bit of an odd texture when they thawed.  If I were to make this for the freezer I would probably add the same volume of raisins and leave the nuts out.  Also, from the photo you'll see that I sliced it and spread it with butter like a tea bread.  I turns out that this was completely delicious...and completely uncesessary.  Seriously, this can be TOTALLY fat free if you want it to be.

Now go and check your fruit bowl...!

Olympic Rings Cupcakes
I really meant to post these a couple of weeks ago but the time just got away from me, however, the Paralympics are still in full flow so I may not have completely missed my chance.  This batch ended up with my son's kindergarten to celebrate their own Olympic extravaganza.  Judging by the number of times we've had to re-create an arena, watch races, hand out medals and sing the national anthem in the garden since then...I'd say it made a big impact on him!  Now, since each cupcake has just one ring on the top, it's much better if they're shared with friends so they can put the emblem together.  In any event, these are for my little Olympian...gold medallist at "jumping in the sand pit" (I think that was the long jump) and elite athlete in training!

For the cupcakes:

1. This uses a 2 egg mix from the cake mix matrix - which can be found here .
2. This will make 12 full sized cupcakes or 25-30 minis.  Since you need multiples of 5 cakes to make the complete set (as in the picture) you could either: have 2 left over for yourself once the kids have gone to bed, use a 3 egg mix instead, or use smaller cupcake cases.  The choice is yours.  If you decide to make minis, they only need to bake for around 10-12 minutes.

For the icing:
50g / 2oz unsalted butter softened
100g / 4oz icing or confectioners sugar sifted
1 drop vanilla exract

1. Beat all the ingredients together for about 3 minutes until pale and fluffy.  
2. Spread a little icing on each cupcake with an offset spatula or palette knife.  You only need to use enough icing to provide a flat surface for the topper.

For the coloured ring toppers:
100g fondant icing
Food colouring pastes **
2 small round cookie cutters - the sizes will depend on the size of cupcake you made
A pair of disposable plastic or latex gloves is recommended but not compulsory!

1. Divide the ball of fondant into 5 equal pieces.  Add one drop of colouring to the first ball and knead it thoroughly until the colour is evenly distributed.  If you find the fondant gets sticky, dust your hands with a little cornflour then continue kneading.  Cover this piece of fondant with cling wrap then continue with the remaining fondant balls until you have all 5 colours.
2. ** I must make a confession here: I haven't coloured fondant red or black in years, it is almost impossible to get a good intensity of colour without making the fondant mushy and impossible to use.  I bought the red and black in the photo above pre-coloured from a local cake decorating shop.  Now, if you're not going to need black or red fondant for anything else, I recommend that you leave the rings white then paint them with Wilton No-Taste Red or Americolor Tulip Red...similarly with the black.  However, Christmas is only a few months away and you could wrap any extra red or black fondant tightly in cling wrap (at least 2 layers) and keep it for Santa cookies...just an idea!
3. Now, dust the benchtop with a little cornflour and roll out each piece of fondant in turn.  Cut the require number of circles from each piece with the larger of your 2 cookie cutters.  Then cut out a disc from the centre of each circle with your smaller cookie cutter...you now have rings! 
4. Allow the rings to dry for 10-15 minutes before placing them on top of the cupcakes.

Maple and Baileys Cupcakes - Happy Birthday Anna!
Lately I've been developing recipes for cocktail cupcakes: some of them based on well known and loved mixes and some new ones. The first fabulous child of those endeavours is a cupcake that is highly addictive!  I made them for my sister in law as part of her birthday banquet...but she won't mind me sharing them here!  So, the cake itself has a resinous slightly smoked depth of flavour with the addition of some good quality maple syrup (please don't even think about substituting anything "maple flavoured"), while the icing is laced with Bourbon Vanilla and Irish Cream Liqueur.  Now, my preferred flavours are always on the bitter or sour side of the spectrum...and I love a good gin and tonic, but even I have fallen in love with these, I urge you to try them!

For the Cupcakes: 
150g / 6oz unsalted butter softened
150g / 6oz caster or superfine sugar
3 large eggs
195g / 8oz plain or all purpose flour sifted
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
60mls / 4 tblspns good quality (organic preferably) maple syrup

1. Preheat the oven to 160 C / 350 F and line a muffin tin with 12 cupcake cases. 
2. Cream the butter and sugar together for about 3 minutes until very light and fluffy. If you're using a free standing mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat again briefly. 
3. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each addition. If necessary scrape down the bowl and beat again. 
4. Reduce the speed to low and add the sieved flour and baking powder. Once they are incorporated, increase the speed to medium and beat for a minute or two, the mixture will become slightly paler. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the maple syrup, beat only until it's thoroughly mixed. 
5. Spoon the batter into the cupcake cases and level the surface with the back of a spoon. Bake for 12-15 minutes depending on your oven, the tops should feel slightly springy to the touch. Allow to cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes then move them to a cooling rack to cool completely. 

For the Icing:
200g / 8oz unsalted butter softened
400g / 1 lb icing or confectioners sugar sifted
60mls / 4 tblspns Bailieys (or other) Irish Cream liqueur
1 tsp vanilla extract (Bourbon preferably)

1. Cream together the butter and sieved icing sugar, pulse the mixture to begin with so you don't cover yourself in the sugar! Once the mixture is combined, increase the speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes until very light and fluffy. 
2. Reduce the speed to slow and add both the liqueur and vanilla extract. Beat well to combine. 
3. Spoon the icing into an icing bag fitted with a medium round tip. Either start at the centre and pipe outwards, or pipe from side to side...just ços it makes a change from a swirly frosting!  Garnish with a few chocolate sprinkles and a piece of drinking straw so that your guests know which of the cupcakes are child friendly and which are strictly adults only. I challenge you to have just one!

Now, you'll see from the photo that I also added hearts as decoration.  These were made from some scarlet fondant I had left over from another project.  I simply rolled it out to about 2 or 3mm thickness, cut out the shapes with a mini cookie cutter and left them to dry on kitchen paper for about a week.  They store quite happily in an airtight box.  For more ideas on combining types of icing please click here .

Chocolate Ganache Slice - a huge bang for just a few bucks! 
Well it seems like a very long time since my last post, I've been making cakes for friends, catering for parties of different sorts, and then of course there's the normal mayhem of everyday life! Thankfully I've been taking photos of all the baked creations along the way so now I just need to write them all up. So here's a slice I made for the grown ups at my son's first birthday party: in its most basic and elegant guise it uses just 4 ingredients and the reaction it gets is massively disproportionate to the effort required to make it. I can't really call it "baked" as no oven is required...unless you want to make the chocolate cookies in the base yourself. As with many of my recipes, this can be made gluten free very easily, just switch the standard crumb base for a GF one. The other thing I should mention is that this can be tweaked in a number of ways depending on your preference: you could add a liqueur such as Grand Marnier or Baileys or Tia Maria; you could add ground nuts to the base; you could add the zest of an orange to the ganache; you could make a simple caramel to drizzle over the slice; or even (and this is what I'm going to try next time) make almond or hazelnut praline and sprinkle it over for a bit of extra crunch. Whichever option you choose, it'll be yummy in a really big way and people will ask you for the recipe! Now, I have a particular fondness for Willie Harcourt-Cooze (his website can be found here) and I recently found a source for his 100% cacao out here in Oz. Of course I just needed an excuse to use it, so in the recipe below you'll see that there's a total weight for the chocolate but within that weight you can mix and match as you please. I used about 100g / 4oz of the grated cacao mixed with 200g / 8oz Green & Blacks organic milk chocolate. Decadent? Possibly. To die for? Definitely!

For the base: 
150g / 6oz plain chocolate crunch biscuits or cookies
60g / 2 1/2 oz unsalted butter

1. Blitz the biscuits or cookies in the food processor, or place them in a roomy zip lock bag and beat them with a rolling pin until you have a fine crumb. 
2. Melt the butter then mix it with the crumbs until you have a damp sandy texture. Press the mixture into a loose bottomed slice tin: mine is 30x10cm (or 12x4 inches) but you could just as easily use a round one. Be sure to press the crumbs up the sides of the tin. To avoid big wads of crumb base at the edge, I use my 1 cup measure to press the crumbs down and against the sides at the same time, this seems to result in a good even thickness. 
3. Place the tin in the fridge while you make the ganache. 

For the ganache: 
300g / 12oz chocolate (milk, dark or a mixture) chopped roughly
300ml / 1 1/4 cups double or heavy cream

1. Gently heat the cream until bubble start to appear around the edge but do not allow it to boil. Remove it from the heat. 
2. Add the chocolate rubble to the cream and allow it to stand for a couple of minutes. Stir the mixture until all the chocolate is combined with the cream and you have a smooth glossy mixture. 
3. Remove the slice tin from the fridge, carefully pour in the ganache and return the whole lot to the fridge for at least 30 minutes. 

When you're ready to serve it, remove the tin: I stand mine on a couple of cans and gently ease the sides down but I have to confess that I don't attempt to remove the slice from the flat base. Now, this can be served straight from the fridge but I prefer to allow it to come back to room temperature. In any event, it's easier to slice if you use a hot sharp knife. I just dip mine in hot water, dry it and cut 2 or 3 pieces then go back to the hot water. You can serve 12 people quite easily with the above quantities, it's pretty rich so less is more! I served this with cream but that really is gilding the lily, it's perfect on its own.

Fabulous Cheesecake - Reduced Fat So You Can Eat More!!
Who doesn't love a good cheesecake?  With the crunchy base, silky smooth top, and a pleasing tang of lemon it's both elegant dessert and comfort food all at the same time.  Now I am not usually into the low fat version of anything baked - mostly because substituting some weird spread for butter just doesn't work...but your traditional cheesecake recipes are so loaded with cholesterol I find it hard to justify the enjoyment.  So, I've come up with the recipe below, probably based on Nigella's but I can't be sure: it's been through a few versions - some worked, some didn't!  I think I've managed to preserve all the yummy texture and flavour, but you make it and decide.  Also, this one was made for Mother's Day so it has a little dark chocolate swirled on the top, but you could just as easily use a raspberry coulis - or nothing at all!  Oh, and the heart shape was a bit of whimsy, if you don't have a tin like this just use a 20cm / 8" round one.  And this can easily be made gluten free: just use GF cookies for the base, the remainder of the recipe is the same.

For the Base:
175g / 7oz Hob Nobs or Anzac Biscuits (or some other crunchy cookie with oats in) 
75g / 3 oz unsalted butter melted

1. Either place the cookies in a grip seal bag and beat them to a fine rubble with a rolling pin, or place them in a food processor and pulse them a few times until you have the same texture.
2. Combine the melted butter with the cookie crumbs and press into the base of a 20cm or 8" springform tin.  I like to use the base of my 1 cup measure to press the crumbs down evenly.  You don't need to press them up the sides of the tin - just make sure you have a nice level platform.  Place the tin in the fridge while you make the next layer.

For the "Cheese" Layer:
500g / 1lb 2oz Light Philadelphia (or other) cream cheese, softened
150g / 6oz caster or superfine sugar
3 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
1 tblspn vanilla extract, or the scraped seeds from 1 vanilla bean
Zest of 1 large lemon - use a microplane if you have one
2 tblspns lemon juice

1. Preheat your oven to 170 C / 350 F, fill the kettle with water and put it on to boil.
2. Now, you can do all of the mixing part by hand in a big bowl with a wooden spoon providing the cream cheese is at room temperature.  Just follow the instructions below to get the order of ingredients right.  If you have a free standing mixer: place the cream cheese in the bowl and using the paddle attachment beat for about 30 seconds just until it looks like thick whipped cream.  
3. Add the sugar, eggs, egg yolks and vanilla.  Beat on medium for about a minute until everything is well combined.  Lastly, add the lemon zest and juice and beat briefly.
4. The next step is REALLY important to get that soft silky texture: take your springform tin out of the fridge and place it on a double thickness of foil.  Bring the edges of the foil up as far as they will go - they need to be at least half way up the tin.  Stand the tin in a roasting pan and carefully pour the cheese mixture on to the crumb base.  I like to pour it over the back of a big spoon so that it doesn't disturb the crumb base...but I'm probably being over cautious!  
5. To avoid the risk of scalding yourself by carrying a big pan of boiling water: place the roasting pan in the oven, then immediately pour boiling water into it (around the springform tin) until the water level is halfway up the cake tin.  Close the oven door and bake for about 45 minutes (depending on your oven) or until the middle of the cake feels lightly set.

For the Topping:
8 tblspns low fat or fat free sour cream
2 squares of plain or bittersweet chocolate melted

1. If your sour cream is fairly firm, stir in a tablespoon or 2 of milk until it can be poured easily.  Take the cheesecake from the oven (still in its water bath) and pour over the sour cream.  Drop dots of melted chocolate from the end of a teaspoon around the edge of the cake.  Using a toothpick or fine skewer, swirl the dots of chocolate into the sour cream (see photo above).
2. Cook for a further 8-10 minutes until the sour cream is just set.  Take the cake out of the oven and leave it to set in the tin for about 15 mins.  Then, I like to run a thin off-set spatula carefully around the inside of the tin just to make sure it doesn't stick.  Unclip the springform and remove it, but leave the cake on the metal base plate.  Allow to cool completely then place in the fridge for at least an hour or two, but as long as 3 days is fine if you want to make this ahead. 
   TOP TIP:  place loosely scrunched up balls of foil (that are taller than the cheescake) around the cake before you cover the plate with cling wrap.  This will hold the cling wrap clear of the top of the cake...if it touches the cake it will ruin the beautiful smooth surface of the sour cream layer!
3. Remove from the fridge and allow the cake to come to room temperature before you serve it, the texture and flavour is much better than when it's fridge-cold.  Serve it just as it is, or with a few berries...scrumptious!

Margarita Cupcakes - Or Get Your Cinco De Mayo On!!
I do realise that the 5th of May is really a celebration for the good people of Mexico but it has spread into the mainstream of US culture so I thought it only right and proper to honour the occasion with some slightly tipsy cupcakes...obviously this is strictly for my US bloggy pals, the rest of us have absolutely no excuse whatsoever for tipping Tequila into a cake mix...or frosting...hic!  Now, a cupcake is a thing of beauty: a single serving (assuming you can restrict yourself to just one) of cake which can contain the complete spectrum of cakey delightfulness.  It could be elegantly simple - like a vanilla vanilla, or completely decadent and OTT like a triple choc fudge.  As a general principle I have a few standard combinations I return to over and over with just the icing and embellishment reflecting the particular occasion they are celebrating.  My standard flavours are: vanilla bean, citrus (orange, lemon, lime or a combination), and chocolate.  For the recipe below I've started with a citrus base and then added a couple of things to both cake and frosting.  Just so you know, each cuppy has approximately 5ml (1 tsp) of alcohol in the frosting - I have assumed that it cooks out of the cake part.  Oh, and the pink cupcakes below are the 'virgin' version for non-drinkers and kids.

For the Cakes:
100g / 4oz unsalted butter softened
100g / 4oz caster or superfine sugar
130g / 5oz plain or all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
2 large eggs
Zest of 1 or 2 limes depending on how big they are - use a microplane if you have one
Juice of the limes you just zested
2 tblspns Tequila
1 tblspn Triple Sec or Cointreau (if you don't have any just increase the Tequila)

1. Preheat the oven to 160 C / 325 F and line a muffin tin with 12 cupcake cases.
2. If you have a freestanding mixer just put all the ingredients in the bowl, beat on slow for about 30 seconds until everything is combined, then on medium for 2 minutes until the batter is pale and fluffy.  
3. If you don't have a freestanding mixer, you can just as easily use a bowl and a wooden spoon.  Cream together the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs and 2 tblspns of the flour, beat again.  Add the alcohol and lime juice, beat well.  Then add the remainder of the flour, the baking powder and the lime zest - beat until the batter is pale and fluffy.
4. Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases, level the tops slightly, then bake for about 15 mins (depending on your oven) or until they pass the clean skewer test.

For the Frosting:**
200g / 2 sticks unsalted butter softened
500g / 1lb 2oz icing or confectioners sugar sifted
2 tblspns Tequila
2 tblspns Triple Sec or Cointreau (if you don't have any, increase the Tequila)
Zest and juice of a large lime (use a microplane if you have one)
Zest of another lime cut into fine shreds for decoration
12 bendy straws cut down a little for decoration

1. Using a freestanding mixer, beat the butter and sugar together - start slowly so you don't disappear in a cloud of sugar!  Once they are combined increase the speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes until very pale and fluffy.  Add the alcohol, the lime zest and juice and beat again for another minute.  Now, if the icing seems a little soft place the whole bowl in the fridge for 20-30 mins.  If it seems firm enough to pipe carry on with step 2.
2. Pipe big swirls on the cupcakes using a medium open star tip then decorate with a few shreds of lime zest and a straw.
3. Strike up the Mariachi Band and get dancing on your hat!

** In response to a viewer's question(!):  If you'd prefer to spread the frosting more thinly on the cuppies instead of piping it in a big swirl, you can either a)half the quantities and use an offset spatula to spread it...or...b)make the same quantity and freeze the bit you don't use.  If you put the left over frosting into a zip lock (or grip seal) bag, squeeze out the air, seal it, then wrap the whole thing in another bag or cling wrap, it'll last a good 3 months in the freezer.  Except it won't...you'll be making another batch of cakes way before then!!

Ricotta and Spinach Slice
I have probably made this slice for every gathering we've had in the last few years...except once...and then I was asked if it was still in the oven!  It seems to be universally popular, which is somewhat surprising given that most people wouldn't eat spinach on its own.  It is one of the most versatile dishes too: you can cut it into 25 dainty 'entertaining-the-mother-in-law' pieces, into 4 'hungry fella' slabs...or anything in between; serve it hot with vegetables for dinner, warm with a salad for lunch, or cold and on its own in a lunchbox.  And it's very forgiving: you really don't need to be exact with the measurements and you can substitute ingredients quite happily if you need to.  For example: you can take it in a Provence-ish direction by using silverbeet (chard) leaves and a sprinkling of thyme, you can take it to Greece with filo pastry and a smattering of fetta, you can even go all Espanol with manchego cheese and a few chopped olives.  And I've seen big burly blokes go for seconds and thirds when I've served it piled on platters as part of a buffet.  Not only do "real men eat quiche", they eat this too!

Ingredients:
2 sheets puff pastry thawed
400g Ricotta (smooth or lumpy, it makes no difference)
2 bunches of fresh spinach, or 1 package of frozen spinach thawed and well squeezed!
50g /2oz good hard cheese such as Cheddar or Jack, grated
25g / 1oz freshly grated Parmesan or Grana Padano or similar
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 nutmeg grated (or 1/4 tsp of ready ground nutmeg)
2 eggs
1/2 tblspn milk
1 tsp sesame seeds

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C / 400 F.  Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper or baking parchment and place one sheet of pastry on it (remove the plastic backing of course!).
2. If you're using fresh spinach, wash it well and cook it in a dry pan for a few seconds until it is JUST cooked, remove it to a chopping board and chop well with a mezzaluna or heavy bladed knife. 
3. In a large bowl mix together the spinach, the cheeses, the pepper and nutmeg.
4. Break the eggs into a cup and beat fairly well.  Pour most of the eggs into the spinach mixture - you need to reserve about 1/2 tblspn in the cup.  Mix everything together really well with a fork (it helps to break up any lumps on spinach).
5. Pile the mixture onto the pastry sheet and spread to within 1cm / 1/2 inch of the edges.  You need to make it as even as possible and avoid a dome in the middle.
6. Mix the milk with the reserved egg and use it to moisten the edges of the pastry.  Place the remaining pastry sheet on top and seal the edges by pressing down with a fork.  Brush the egg & milk mixture over the top of the slice to glaze it then sprinkle the sesame seeds over.
7. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden and shiny.
8. Allow to cool a little before serving, or completely before wrapping and storing.

Toffee Cinnamon Bites:
Here's a really quick recipe for a really quick snack.  The sweet version can happily join in with morning coffee, afternoon tea, or movie-time munchies.  The savoury version I've included at the end of the recipe is a great accompaniment for drinks whether it's civilised cocktails with the girls, or beers with the boys!  Excluding the time it takes to pre-heat the oven, I made both versions (which gave me 32 pieces) in 15 minutes.  If you're feeding a larger number of people just double or triple the quantities.

For Cinnamon Bites:
1 sheet frozen puff pastry - thawed
2 tblspns caster or superfine sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C / 400 F.  Remove the plastic sheet from the back of the pastry, lay it on the bench and place the pastry back on top.
2. Mix together the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.  Sprinkle evenly over the surface of the pastry then press into the surface lightly.
3. Roll each side of the pastry sheet in towards the middle, keeping the plastic backing on the bench.  When the two sides nearly meet, fold the along the central gap so that you have a long narrow log shape.  
4. With a sharp knife cut off any ragged edges at the top and bottom of the log, then cut approximately 15 or 16 slices from the log.  Lay the slices on a lined baking sheet leaving space between for expansion.  Bake for 10 minutes or until puffed and golden.  When you bring them out of the oven immediately remove them from the baking tray with a spatula or palette knife and place on a cooling tray.  The reason for this is that the melted sugar will spot weld the bites to the baking tray if allowed to cool!

For Parmesan Bites:
1 sheet puff pastry - thawed
1/4 tsp chilli powder
2 tablspns freshly grated parmesan - or Grana Padano, whichever you prefer.

1. The method is identical, just mix the cheese and spice together in step 2 then proceed with the rest of the steps.

Lemon Ombre Cake (or Happy Birthday to Me!)
There are a few flavours and flavour combinations which always make me happy: a good sharp hit of lemon would probably be in my top 3.  It was my birthday last week and, given that the long Easter weekend was coming right up, I deferred celebrations a little.  It's probably a bit odd to make your own birthday cake, but I consider it a present to myself!  I opted to max out the lemon: light as air lemon sponge layers, silky smooth but cheek-suckingly-sharp lemon curd filling, all swathed in tangy swirls of fluffy lemon frosting.  But the lemon isn't agressive at any point, it's all mellowed and balanced by the sugar you always get (and which can be cloying with other flavour combos) in both the cake and the frosting.  Oh, and all with the fashionable ombre effect (it's de rigeur daaahling!!).  There are a couple of things I would do differently next time I make this cake: firstly I would keep the cake refrigerated right up until serving just so that the cake crumb was firmer; and I would frost the cake on its serving plate rather than try to transfer it once completed...yikes!  If you have sandwich tins your life will be easier as you can bake 2 layers at a time; if you don't it's still not difficult, it just takes a bit longer to get the cake stage done.

For the Cake:
This is a 4 egg mix (from the cake mix matrix which can be found here.  PLUS:
8 drops of yellow food colouring gel (I used Americolor Egg Yellow), 
3 tblspns milk (making 7 tblspns or 105mls total)
Zest of a large lemon.

1. Preheat the oven to 160 C / 325F.  Weigh your mixing bowl and note down the number.  Line two 20cm / 8" sandwich tins, or a single cake tin if that's what you have to hand.  Make the cake batter as per the instructions in the matrix, adding the extra milk and lemon zest, then beat on high for 3 minutes until very pale, very light and very soft.
2. Scrape off the beaters into the bowl and weigh it again, note down the number.  Now, subtract the weight of the mixing bowl and divide the answer by 5 - that's how much mixture is going into each layer of the cake (for me it was 175g / 6oz.  Place the cake tin on the scales, zero the scales, then pour in the required weight of cake batter.  Tilt the cake tin gently until the batter is evenly spread (if your mixture is a bit too firm to tilt into place just nudge it gently with a small spatula).  
3. Add 2 drops of yellow gel to the remaining batter in the bowl and mix VERY well. Add 175g / 6oz of batter to the second tin, level the mixture.  Now bake both of these for approximately 9-10 minutes or until they feel springy to the touch.  If you're baking one layer at time make sure you bake it in the centre of the oven.  Meanwhile add a further 2 drops of food colouring gel to the batter in the bowl and beat well.
4. When cooked, cool the cakes in the tin for about 5 mins then carefully de-tin onto a cooling rack.  Run some cold water into the tin (to cool it down), re-line and weigh in another 175g/6oz of batter.  Repeat the process until you have 5 cooked layers of sponge cake, adding 2 drops of colouring to the batter for each layer.  Make sure you remember the order in which you placed the cooked layers on the cooling racks...so that you stack them in the right order when you assemble the cake!

For the Lemon Curd / Lemon Butter Filling:
2 large or 3 medium lemons
150g / 6oz sugar
100g / 4oz unsalted butter cut up
4 large eggs (don't use very fresh eggs, the egg white is too thick)

1. Place the zest and juice of the lemons in a heatproof bowl.  Add the sugar and the butter.  Break the eggs into jug or bowl, beat them well, then strain them through a sieve onto the other ingredients.  I know this sounds fussy, but you really don't want lumps of cooked egg white making your lemon curd grainy.
2. Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir until everything is melted and/or dissolved - about 5 mins.  At this stage you'll probably wonder how such an unpromising mess will ever turn into something wonderful...trust me...it does.  Just leave the bowl over the simmering water, stir it every couple of minutes while you get on with something else, until you have a thick custard consistency.
3. Remove the bowl from the heat, allow it to cool a little then cover completely with plastic wrap (it's best if the wrap touches the surface of the curd), and place in the fridge until you assemble the cake.

For the Frosting:
200g / 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
500g / 4 cups icing sugar, sieved
juice of 1 large lemon (the one you zested for the cake)

1. Place all the ingredients in the bowl of a free standing mixer and (using the paddle attachment) beat on slow until everything is combined.  Increase the speed to high and beat for 3-4 mins until very white, light and fluffy.  Scrape down the sides and beat for a further 30 seconds.

To Assemble the Masterpiece:

1. If your cakes have fairly flat tops (which they should) you can go straight on to the layering.  If they have domed tops, carefully slice off the domed part so you have a flat surface.  Place the darkest yellow layer upside down on the serving plate.  Place about 2 tblspns of the lemon curd on top and spread almost to the edges.  If you need a little more lemon curd that's fine, you'll have plenty.
2. Take your next darkest yellow layer and carefully place that on top.  Keep layering up the cakes with lemon curd in between until you have placed your final palest layer on top.  You can of course do this in reverse order so the lightest layer is at the bottom, it just seems a bit counter-intuitive!
3. Now, take a bamboo skewer (or similar implement) and push it, from the top, right down through the entire cake stack.  This will give you some stability while you add the crumb coat of frosting.  Take a small amount of icing and spread it very thinly all over the top and sides of the cake.  Add more icing where you need to so that you have a completely smooth surface over the top and sides.  Remove the skewer and place the cake in the fridge for 20-30 mins.
4. Now for the fun part!  I can't be precise here because so much depends on your icing style.  It really doesn't matter about precision though as you will have plenty of frosting of the right colour when you need it.  So, place a good couple of scoops of white icing in a disposable pastry/icing bag fitted with a coupler and small open star tip.  Starting at the top edge, pipe 6's or 9's (that's left or right spirals) around the side of the cake.  They should be large enough to cover about 1/4 the height of the cake.  Next, pipe the same spirals on top of the cake around the outside edge...see the photo above if my description is inept!  If you run out of frosting just scoop some more into your piping bag from the bowl.  Any frosting left in the bag can be squeezed back into the bowl.
5. Add 1 drop of yellow food gel colouring to the frosting and beat well, it must be completely mixed in with no streaks.  Remove the coupler and tip from the previous icing/pastry bag and place in a new bag.  Scoop in some of the pale yellow frosting and pipe another layer of spirals around the side of the cake just below the white ones, repeat on the top of the cake.  Add another drop of food colouring to the frosting in the bowl, beat really well, then complete your third row...add a drop of colour, beat, complete the fourth and final row.
6. Place the cake in the fridge for 30 mins or so, just to firm up the frosting.  And use a good sharp knife when you cut the cake...I didn't, and it fuzzied up the layers a little. 

Icing Options
My last post was a recipe for orange nutmeg cookies (you can find it here) and I used some of the dough to make lambs and chicks for my little lamb and chick...and I promise this will be the last cutesy posting for a couple of months!  I also promised I'd post a recipe for royal icing which I have combined with ready to roll fondant on the lambs, and used 'neat' on the chicks.  It has taken me quite a while to settle on the recipe that works best for me and the local climate and I still need to adjust the amount of water if it's a particularly hot, dry, or stormy day...so don't worry if you need to make small adjustments too.  Also, most recipes I have read talk about 'meringue powder' which I haven't been able to find locally.  But, I did find something called Pavlova Magic (well of course, it's practically the national dish!) which seems to work just fine.  Now, there are several videos on You Tube if you're new to piping, and this one is my favourite for basic technique.  Oh, and please don't think you have to do any of that origami business to make your own piping bags...get a pack of disposables from the supermarket or a cake decorating shop.  Lastly, please don't freak out that the lamb and the chick are the same size, this is not some scary steroid experiment...they're just cookies!!

Royal Icing: enough for at least 36 cookies
3 tblspns Pavlova Magic or meringue powder
500g / 1lb 2oz icing or confectioners sugar
5 tblspns water (which should be hand hot)
Upto 2 tsps of flavouring (vanilla or almond essence, lime juice etc)

1. Place the Pavlova Magic or meringue powder in the bowl of a free standing mixer and add the hand hot water.  With the paddle attachment, beat on slow for about 30 seconds until it's dissolved then increase the speed to medium and beat for about a minute until the mixture is nice and frothy.
2. Add the icing or confectioners sugar all in one go and beat on slow - to avoid getting covered in sugar - until everything is well mixed.  Increase the speed to medium and beat for about 6 or 7 minutes.  The mixture should be very white and very stiff.  If you remove the paddle attachment and run it through the icing, you should be able to turn the paddle upside down and the peak of icing will stand straight up.
3. At this point, I usually divide the icing between a number of smaller plastic boxes or bowls, according to how many colours I need, cover each batch with a piece of cling wrap - and make sure the wrap is touching the entire surface of the icing to ensure that no air gets in - put the lids on, and stash the whole lot in the fridge until the next time I get an opportunity to potter in the kitchen! 

For the Lambs:
Pre-baked and cooled cookies
A small amount of light corn syrup (such as Karo) or runny honey 
White ready to roll fondant icing
White royal icing
Black sugar beads
Disposable piping bag fitted with a coupler and PME 1.5 piping tip

1. Dust the kitchen bench with a little cornflour / corn starch.  Roll out the fondant to approximately 3mm or 1/4"  thickness.  Using the same lamb cutter you used for the cookies, cut out as many shapes as you need.  You can re-roll the scraps of fondant a couple of times, but after that there's usually too much cornflour incorporated and you need to use a new piece.
2. Brush the surface of the cookies with a little corn syrup - don't go right to the edges of the cookie as they will have spread during baking and the fondant shape will be slightly smaller.
3. Place a fondant cut out on top of each cookie and press lightly all over.  Push a black sugar bead into the fondant for the eye.
4. Next, take a couple of tablespoons of white royal icing and place in a small bowl.  Add a teaspoon of water and beat really well with a spatula.  Pour the icing into the prepared piping bag.  Lift the bag and shake the icing down to the tip then twist the top part of the bag to make a seal.  (See the Sweetopia video link in the top paragraph for the visuals).  Now, pipe a line all round the body of the lamb and around the edge of the face.  Pipe some spirals and "C's" on the body - and there you have your woolly little lamb!

For the chicks:
Pre-baked and cooled cookies
Royal icing
Black sugar beads
1 disposable piping bag fitted with a coupler and a PME 1.5 tip (for the orange)
1 disposable piping bag fitted with a coupler and #2 plain tip (for the yellow)

1. Colour a portion of the royal icing yellow - I used Americolor's Egg Yellow - and just add one drop at a time until you have a colour just a shade lighter than you would like.  Now, you want to create what I call 'all purpose' icing.  That means an icing you can use to outline AND flood a cookie at the same time.  So, when you draw a knife through the bowl of icing you want the gap to close and for there to be no trace of the knife mark in about 10 seconds.  So, add about a half teaspoon of water and mix well with a spatula.  Try the knife test.  If it takes 15 or 20 seconds for the mark to disappear, add another half teaspoon of water and beat again then re-test it.  Cover the icing and set it aside for about 30 mins, the colour will develop further.  Take a tiny amount of royal icing and colour it orange - I used Americolor's Electric Orange.  Just add a couple of drops of water off the end of your finger to thin this tiny amount.  Beat it well after the water is added.
2. Pour each batch of icing into their respective piping bag, shake down and twist to seal.
3. Take the yellow icing and pipe an outline around the body of the chick (not the beak).  Immediately flood the shape by piping inside the outline until the body and head areas are filled.  Gently shake the cookie left and right on the work surface to make sure the icing is even and levelled.  With a pair of tweezers, drop a black sugar bead into the wet icing as an eye.  Leave the icing to set for about 30 minutes.  Next, outline and flood a little wing shape on top of the piped body - it will look very dimensional!
4. Finally, outline and fill the tiny beak and pipe on the legs and feet.  Leave the cookies to dry completely for 4-6 hours then place them in an airtight box and they will keep prefectly well for about a week.