A Cakey Update

Since finishing my mammoth baking year I have been doing less baking and more of other things. But I haven’t given up completely. Here is a roundup of what I’ve made in the oven since March:

Luilakbollen (Lazybones Buns)

These came from a recipe from the Netherlands in the Hairy Bikers’ Big Book of Baking. I made these with my friend Josie whose Grandfather is Dutch (although she had never heard of them before). These spicy, fruity bread buns smelt amazing and were lovely warm with melted butter. When they cooled down they were less yummy so I repurposed them into a bread and butter pudding!

Chocolate Lollies

A trip to the flagship Lakeland shop in Windemere ended with my buying lots of baking goodies including a kit to make some chocolate lollies. These turned out ok but I used quite cheap chocolate and so the consistency after melting and resetting was a bit odd.

Giant Cup Cake

It was a colleague’s birthday in April and so I decided to flex my baking skills. This time I made and iced a giant sponge cupcake (made using a special shaped tin). Although this went off to her party, it certainly looked impressive.

Edible Campfires

Not technically baking as such but I wanted to share the awesome creations that my Brownies made at their recent sleepover. These were incredibly lifelike but totally edible with matchmaker logs, digestive biscuit bases, and sweetie and icing fire and stones.

As well as continuing to bake and make some "baubles" I also hope that I can use this blog to put up some updates on my other exciting adventure. More to follow...

(Hint: Look in the top navigation bar!)

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

January’s theme for Clandestine Cake Club matched perfectly with the venue. We ate our selection of Vintage and Retro cakes from assorted floral tea plates, drank real hot chocolate from retro glass cups and lusted after the beautiful dresses and accessories at The Vintage Boudoir Tearoom in Lancaster. 

For my cake I delved into the Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook and this recipe stood out.  I remember my mum making this for us at home, and it turns out it was one of my Nannie’s signature cakes too. Also, I love pineapple and cherries so it seemed like a perfect choice.

Method

First I made a butter (I used real butter to add to the retro feel), golden caster sugar and honey paste that was spread into the bottom of the tin. It was pretty thick and sticky and difficult to move about, but I got there in the end. Then I pressed in the pineapple rings and glace cherries in a pretty pattern, taking care to leave a space at the edge. The sponge was your standard flour, butter, eggs, caster sugar, baking powder, vanilla essence mixture which was made the old fashioned way (i.e. not all in one). This was poured over the pineapple etc. in the tin. Again it was difficult to spread about and I was worried that I was going to dislodge the fruit if I went to hard.

Then the tin went into the oven for about 25 minutes.

Results

I decided that as the book said this was best served warm I would make the cake straight after work, just before going to Cake Club. This meant that it was a bit of a panic when my oven did the usual and decided that it wasn’t going to play ball and cook things in the time that they should. But eventually the skewer came out clean and we (my guest and new college Sarah and I) set off with the cake in my cake carrier (thanks Mum!).  And we weren’t even late.

It was definitely the right decision to bring the cake warm. When I turned out the cake (a nerve wracking experience with everyone watching) the steam and the smell that came off it was amazing. The butter/sugar/honey on the top had formed a sticky glaze and the sponge was moist. There were patches where the glaze had collected in the corners and gone a bit solid but they still tasted ok, if a bit sweet. The family tradition will continue and I will be making this again when I have enough people to enjoy it warm.

Score: 9.5/10

Soundtrack: Chatting to Sarah about all things cake.