Sticky coconut sponge

Wherever I look lately in blog-land I see delicious coconut cakes! Coconut is very high on my list of all time favourite cake ingredients so when I saw this recipe in Leila Lindholm’s “A piece of cake”, I knew I had to make it.


When I started baking this my heart sunk as I noticed that the sponge recipe was the ‘whipped egg and very little butter method’. I have tried and failed consistently with such recipes in the past but decided to carry on, and I’m glad I did because this recipe produced a gorgeous sponge.


The one thing I would do differently next time is bake the sponge a little longer before adding the topping. My sponge was not fully firm and sank a smidgen when I added the topping – you’ll also notice that some sponge rebelled and broke through the topping giving me a cake that looks like a monk’s hairdo (I think it’s called a tonsor but don’t quote me on that - I accept no responsibility for any non-cake facts included in my posts):


The syrupy topping sinks into the cake in a way similar to a steamed golden syrup pudding – I think these photos show it well:



Ingredients:
For the cake:
225g caster sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
50g unsalted butter
100ml milk
210g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

For the coconut topping:
25g unsalted butter, at room temperature
50ml golden syrup
75ml single cream
90g desiccated coconut
90g caster sugar

How to make:

- Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.
- Line the base of a 20cm round springform tin with a disc of baking paper.
- Whisk together the eggs, sugar and vanilla until airy and fluffy.
- Melt the butter and whisk into the eggs along with the milk.
- Fold in the flour and baking powder. This is where I have often hit a problem with this method as the flour doesn’t seem to mix into the egg. So this time, I whisked the flour in very gently and only until just combined. I found it worked much better.
- Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 25 minutes. My cake was still soft at this point and, next time I would bake for 30-35 minutes.
- While the cake is cooking, make the topping. You want the topping to be soft so start making it when the cake has about 10 minutes to go.
- Place all the topping ingredients into a saucepan and stir over a medium heat until melted and nicely combined.
- Bring to the boil and let boil for 5 minutes until the mixture has turned a caramel brown.
- Remove the cake from the oven and pour the topping over it – spread out so all the cake has some topping.
- Return to the oven and bake for a further 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Mine took 25 minutes.
- Leave to cool in the tin before turning out.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.

Iron Cupcake: London first challenge - chocolate

I’ve read Sandy’s blog for a long time following the exploits of Iron Cupcake in the USA and often lamented that we didn’t have one in the UK. After waiting for an Iron Cupcake: London to start up it finally dawned on me that maybe I should start it....so I did!

The concept of Iron Cupcake is simple: each month there's a theme, entrants bake cupcakes that address that theme, everyone gets together and eats lots of cupcakes, a winner is declared.

Iron Cupcake: London (ICL) held its first challenge on Monday 1st June 2009 with a theme of ‘chocolate’. You never know whether your obsession is shared by anyone else – for all I knew I might be sitting in a room on my own all evening – but no! London delivered!


ICL’s first challenge had a stunning TEN entries and I’m delighted to say lots of dedicated eaters too. The standard was thrillingly high and everybody tucked in to the delights on offer – it’s amazing how happy everyone is when the only food on offer is cake!

The stakes were high...money can’t buy you one of these...well, it can, because I bought them but you know what I mean:


The prize bag was overflowing....


...with these goodies:


Here is our worthy winner, Anna, receiving the good news. Her entry of chocolate cinnamon sponge with honeycomb buttercream received rave reviews from everyone:


So, sit back, loosen your waistband, have a hanky ready to mop up any drool and see what baked delights you missed out on........

Emma’s chocolate chipotle cupcakes with cream cheese frosting


Emma judged the spicing of these perfectly – the heat of the chipotle came through gradually and filled your mouth with a spicy warmth that never burned but definitely made itself known.

Heather’s double chocolate cupcakes


Heather's cupcakes were sinfully delicious. The chocolate was intense and moist with the flaked chocolate on top giving a lovely additional texture. One judge said they really “hit the spot”!

Ying’s chocolate orange cupcakes


The chocolate orange ganache topping was so beautiful that it converted two non-chocolate orange eating judges! The balance of textures was a delight – the smooth indulgent ganache had little crispy chocolate orange pieces in it. A very worthy runner-up on the night.

Kelly’s strawberry and white chocolate cupcakes


What I remember most about these was the intense strawberry aroma that announced itself when Kelly took the lid off the storage unit to plate up. The strawberry flavour was so well balanced with the white chocolate and the combination reminded me very much of the lovely strawberry cream in a Quality Street selection.

Randi’s white and dark chocolate cherry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting


Randi’s rich and dark cupcakes were a sinful treat. If you haven’t tried chocolate, cherry and cream cheese frosting together then you’re missing out because the flavours just explode and zing in your mouth!

Jo’s chocolate and vanilla cupcakes


Ah, chocolate and vanilla – a classic. Never disappoints does it? Jo’s idea of putting the frosting on as a big spiral was inspired. It looks terrific! Expect to see me stealing...ahem, I mean borrowing, this idea and using it on a cupcake soon

Alice’s cherry chocolate cupcakes with amaretto ganache


These were so rich and moist they were positively juicy! Imagine a black forest gateau but without the cream and you will conjure up a pretty good impression of how these tasted. The red sprinkles really ‘pop’ against the dark ganache.

Alice’s vanilla and blueberry cupcakes with sour cream icing


Alice is a girl after my own heart- this was her second entry (she also created the cherry chocolate cupcakes shown above). The sour cream icing was delicious – I’ve never had it before and I instinctively knew that one of the most important moments in my life was happening as I tasted it.

Anna’s chocolate cinnamon cupcakes with honeycomb butter icing


The winning cupcake on the night. The chocolate cinnamon cupcake would have been joyful on its own – Anna balanced the chocolate and spice perfectly. But she didn’t stop there, oh no! Add to that a crisp and flavoursome home made honeycomb crushed up into the butter icing with a shard on top and you have a masterpiece! Anna – your cupcakes rocked!

Katy’s fudge brownie cupcakes


All the benefit of a brownie but the bonus of frosting too! These were rich, dense, moist – everything you want from good brownie. The frosting was intensely chocolaty and – in case you’re wondering – yes, Katy did make those dinky little roses on top!

Special thanks to all the great people who helped me plan the event and run it on the night - one person can never be responsible for something like this and I couldn't have done it without you. Hope your generosity extends to helping me with the next one...speaking of which....

...the next challenge is scheduled for 6th July and the theme is ‘summer fruits’. Hope to see you all there.

I leave you with the victor – well done Anna:


All photos are the property of Dave Shipman and reproduced here with his kind permission.

Dutch apple torte

It’s week two of my love affair with Aaron Maree’s “Cakes, Tortes and Gateaux of the World” and all is progressing well. This torte is a lot of work but well worth it if you have the time to devote to it.


You know how whenever a stalker who’s obsessed with a singer gets arrested, the stalker usually claims, in their defence, that the singer was directing particular lyrics in a song to them; never mind the millions of other people who heard the same lyric, it was meant for them only. Well that’s how I feel about this recipe. Aaron Maree meant it for me – look at the evidence: my favourite things in the world of cake are sponge, apples, coconut, cinnamon, almonds and pastry. This tart contains all of them. Mr Maree – what are you trying to tell me?


What caught my eye with this recipe was the way that it gets rid of that thorny issue of ‘shall we have pie or cake?’ Of course, the answer is to have both, but this recipe allows you do that in one piece. A whole Genoese sponge sits in the pastry case! Genius. The CCM (Caked Crusader’s Ma) observed that it feels like you’re eating three cakes/pies in one and it is a little strange at first as you won’t have eaten anything like it before. Once you overcome that sensation it’s deliciousness all the way!

Here is the sponge sitting in the base:


This gorgeous mix of apple, cinnamon and coconut is then added:


It is a nightmare to try and slice prettily though. This is probably a good place to ask whether any other bakers out there hate cutting the cake they’ve made? I loathe it and always pass the task to the CCM, standing on the sidelines panicking at every incision she makes. If it’s just me being weird then, fair enough, I accept I’m weird! The CCM worked her wonders with the knife and got a nice clean slice for a photo:


I made some tweaks to the recipe – the original recipe said to use cooking apples but the idea of Bramley apples with only 100g of sugar made my mouth pucker so I used a tart eating apple instead (Granny Smith’s). I also made 1.5x the pastry quantity as I have often found that professional pastry chef’s recipes are a bit stingy on the pastry because they’re so skilled at rolling it out paper thin. I’m glad I did extra as there wasn’t a lot spare. The quantities set out in the recipe below are what I used.

I loved the way the tort glowed when the apricot glaze was added:


Final thing to point out, the pastry in this recipe is quite hard to handle. It’s like a halfway house between shortcrust and shortbread and is delicious as a result . It’s extremely short and after barely 5 minutes out of the fridge turns soft – more like a paste. It does however patch well and a heavily floured work surface also helps. If you’re not that confident with pastry I would suggest using your own trusted shortcrust pastry instead of this one. You would be losing something though.

Serving suggestion:


Ingredients:
For the cake:
112g unsalted butter, at room temperature
112g caster sugar
2 eggs
112g self raising flour
1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the ‘shortbread’ pastry:
450g plain flour
225g icing sugar
300g unsalted butter
3 eggs
Water as required

For the filling:
4 tart eating apples (I used Granny Smith. I used 6 apples which was too much – hence my hugely domed pie!)
6 level teaspoons cinnamon
30ml calvados (I used apple juice instead)
100g caster sugar
50g ground almonds
100g desiccated coconut
3 tablespoons apricot jam

For finishing off:
100g apricot glaze (I used ready made from Marks and Spencer, but if you can’t find it simply melt some apricot jam and brush it on)
200g icing sugar
2-4 tablespoons water
100g flaked almonds

How to make:
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.
- Line one 20cm loose bottomed sandwich tin with baking paper.
- Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Do not skimp on this stage as it’s the key to a lovely sponge.
- Gradually add the eggs, flour and vanilla until fully combined and you have a smooth, thick batter.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared tin. Level the surface.
- Bake for approx 25 minutes until a skewer inserted into the cakes comes out clean. Mine took 30 minutes.
- Leave to cool for 10 minutes in the tin before removing from the tin and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack.
- The sponge can be made the day before and stored in an airtight container.
- Now make the shortbread pastry: place the flour, icing sugar and butter in a food processor and blitz until you have fine breadcrumbs.
- Add the eggs and blitz again.
- Add enough water to make a dough. Knead until a nice firm consistency then wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan oven 180°C/400°F/Gas mark 6
- Lightly butter a 23cm springform pan.
- Take 2/3s of the pastry and roll out between two sheets of floured clingfilm. I floured the clingfilm as my pastry was soft and sticky; if yours isn’t then hold off on the flour.
- When you have a pastry disc big enough to line the inside of the tin and come right the way up the sides, transfer the pastry to the tin. Mine fell to bits but I discovered that it patches well!
- Return the pasty in the tin to the fridge while you prepare the filling.
- Now make the filling: peel, core and slice the apples – I cut each apple into about 12 slices i.e. I quartered it and then cut each quarter into 3.
- Place the apple slices in a bowl and add the cinnamon, calvados/apple juice, sugar, ground almonds and desiccated coconut. Stir so that all the apple slices are covered in the dry ingredients.
- Remove the pastry case from the fridge and spread the apricot jam over the base.
- Sit the Genoese sponge in the bottom of the tin. It should fit easily as it was made in a 20cm tin.
- Pack the coated apples around the sponge and over the top. Take care, because the tighter you pack the apples, the more you’ll get in!
- Return to the fridge while you roll out the top of the pastry.
- As before, roll the remaining pastry out between two sheets of clingfilm until you have a sufficient disc to cover the top of your torte.
- Remove the torte from the fridge and lay the pastry lid on top. Crimp the edges to ensure that nothing will escape during cooking.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes until the shortbread pastry looks cooked. Remember, the sponge is already cooked so judge it solely on the pastry.
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack. When the tin is cool enough to handle, remove the springform rim.
- Brush the top of the torte with apricot glaze and leave to dry.
- Now make the glace icing: place the icing sugar in a bowl and add a tablespoon of water. Whisk until a thick but runny paste is produced, adding more water as necessary to achieve this.
- Pour the icing over the top of the torte and, before it sets, scatter the flaked almonds over the top
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.

Vanilla cupcapés

Yes, you’ve read it right. These aren’t cupcakes but rather cupcapés – in other words, cupcake canapés. I have invented this word and will be trying to get it adopted into common usage. Feel free to bandy it about as you please.


I haven’t made mini cupcakes before but wanted something to serve at Iron Cupcake London that was relevant and bite sized. Hence, cupcapés were born!

Here are 36 of the 50 cupcapés made. If you are now counting the cupcapés to validate the numbers I recommend that you either pursue a career in audit or go and get your OCD sorted!


I used my trusted basic cupcake recipe and simply adjusted the cooking time to take into account that mini cupcakes will bake quicker. They really are lovely to eat – down in one is definitely the best way to enjoy these!

Nude cupcapés:



Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
125g self raising flour
2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk

For the buttercream:
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
200g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Splash of milk

How to make:

- Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan oven 170°C/375°F/Gas mark 5.
- Line two mini cupcake tins with paper cases. This quantity will make 24 mini cupcakes
- Beat the butter and sugar together until they are smooth, fluffy and pale. This will take several minutes even with soft butter. Don’t skimp on this stage.
- Add the eggs , flour, vanilla and milk and beat until smooth.
- Spoon into the paper cases and bake for approximately 15 minutes until a skewer comes out cleanly. Best to start checking them after 10 minutes.
- Leave to cool on a wire rack.
- Now make the buttercream: beat the butter in a bowl until very soft.
- Add the icing sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the vanilla and milk.
- Either spread or pipe over the cupcakes
- Decorate as desired
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.