The Sky Is Starless: Baking

Showing posts with label Baking. Show all posts

Summer is finally here! I spent the weekend lounging in the garden, walking in the woods amongst the bluebells, and making cake! This blueberry and lemon cake with cardamom mascarpone frosting is the perfect cake to make on lazy summer days. The flavours all work beautifully together. The lemon and blueberry sponge is a classic but I've added a subtle cardamom flavour to the frosting to give it a little twist.

For the sponge you will need:

175 g unsalted butter, room temperature
225 g caster sugar
150 g light brown sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
300 ml milk, room temperature
2 1/2 lemons, zest and juice
3 tsp baking powder
340 g flour
3/4 tsp salt
150 g blueberries, washed and dried

Preheat your oven to 170 C. In a large bowl beat the butter until smooth. After about a minute of beating, add the sugars. Beat for around 5 minutes or until light and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. It is important that your butter and eggs are at room temperature otherwise the mixture will curdle.

In a bowl mix the vanilla extract, milk, lemon juice and zest. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add a third of the dry ingredients to the large bowl, mix until just combined. Add half of the liquid and mix until just combined. Continue this process until you have a third of the flour mixture left.

Stir the blueberries in with your remaining dry ingredients until coated. Add these to the mixture and fold until just combined. Coating the blueberries in flour will, hopefully, prevent them from sinking to the bottom of your cake.

Prepare your cake tins by greasing them and lining their bases with greaseproof paper. Spoon your mixture into your tins and smooth the mixture to make the cakes even. Pop them in the oven for around 25-30 minutes until the cakes are lightly golden and an inserted skewer remains clean.

Leave your cakes in their tins for 20 minutes before turning out onto your wire rack to cool completely. The blueberries should make your cake resemble blue cheese. The cakes should smell gorgeous, don't be tempted to eat it all now. The frosting is definitely worth the wait.

To make the frosting you will need:

170 g unsalted butter
125 g icing sugar
1 tsp ground cardamom (I ground cardamom seeds using a mortar and pestle)
240 ml mascarpone
60 ml greek yogurt

Using an electric whisk, beat the butter, icing sugar and ground cardamom until smooth and fluffy. Mix in the mascarpone and yoghurt until just combined. The icing should be smooth and fluffy. Mine curdled a little because it was so warm in my kitchen. To prevent curdling make sure your ingredients are very cold. Sandwich your cakes together with the icing. Top with more icing and your choice of toppings. I decorated mine with blueberries, lemon zest and almonds and sprinkled with grated chocolate and icing sugar. I'm definitely not a pro at icing cakes but the amazing taste definitely makes up for the messy appearance!

Cut the cake into slices and share with your family in the sun!

Love Rhiannon x

I've made vegan cake before and often the results have been dense, soggy, and full of really expensive ingredients. In an attempt to cater for my vegan sister I made this berry and banana tray-bake. I was half expecting it to be left untouched by my family but it was half-eaten by the end of the day. Definitely my most successful vegan cake so far! It's so simple to make, has a really light texture, and doesn't require you to buy any fancy ingredients. It is the perfect way to use up brown bananas and soggy berries!

To make this cake you will need:

170 g caster sugar
75 ml vegetable oil
60 ml unsweetened almond milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 ripe bananas
175 g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup of berries (I used a mix of raspberries and blueberries)
A handful of flaked almonds (optional)

Grease and line a 9 inch square tin with vegetable oil. Preheat the oven to 175 C.

In a large bowl whisk together the sugar, oil, milk, and vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl mash the banana. Add this to the liquids in the large bowl and mix.

Add the flour, the baking powder, and the salt to the bowl. Fold until just combined. Don't worry if there are lumps. Over-mixing will mean that you don't get a lovely light-textured traybake.

Set aside a few of the berries to top your traybake. Carefully mix the rest into your cake batter.

Pour the mixture into your prepared tin. Top with your berries and sprinkle a handful of flaked almonds over the top.

Bake your traybake for around 40 minutes or until golden brown on the top and an inserted skewer remains clean.

Once cooled, cut the traybake into slices. I cut mine into 12 pieces but cut depending on how big you want your pieces to be.

Dust with icing sugar, make a big pot of tea, and enjoy your delicious and guilt-free vegan traybake.

Love Rhiannon x

After a delicious post-work treat of hot chocolate and cake with my mum at Filmore and Union in Skipton, I decided to create my own version of the cake we shared. This orange and lavender flavoured sponge topped with fresh yoghurt frosting and toasted pumpkin seeds is the perfect afternoon tea cake for these first few days of spring.

For this cake you will need edible dried lavender. My mum picked this jar up in Home Sense (home of strange things you never knew you needed) but you can pick and dry your own. Looking at this picture I took last year of a jar of fresh lavender makes me so excited for summer.

To make the cake you will need:

250 g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
125g caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp edible dried lavender
finely grated zest of two oranges
2 large eggs
200g greek yoghurt
50g butter, melted
50g sunflower oil
A lined or greased loaf tin

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Mix the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients together in separate bowls.

Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry and fold to combine. Pour into your prepared loaf tin and smooth until level. Bake the cake in the oven for around 40 minutes until an inserted skewer remains clean. Leave to cool while you make your orange soaking syrup.

In a small saucepan combine the juice of two oranges with 2 tablespoons of icing sugar. Bring to a simmer and leave to thicken for around 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

With the cake still in the tin, skewer your cake a few times to allow the syrup soak in. Drizzle the syrup over the cake and leave to cool completely.

To make the yoghurt icing you will need:

250g greek yoghurt
60g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Fold all the ingredients together until just combined. Refrigerate for around half an hour before using.

Place a handful of pumpkin seeds in a small pan and stir on a low heat until golden brown. Leave these to cool. Once the cake and the pumpkin seeds are cool, smother the cake with the yoghurt icing and scatter with the pumpkin seeds.

Mine looks quite informal but the best thing about this cake is the taste. The lavender is subtle and blends deliciously with the orange flavour and the toasted pumpkin seeds give a wonderful crunch on top. I hope you enjoy making and sharing this cake, I would love to see your pictures on instagram or pinterest.

Love Rhiannon x

It was Mother's Day on Sunday so I decided to make these rum and raisin cupcakes as I remember my mum always used to choose rum and raisin flavoured ice cream on family holidays. Boozy cakes always go down well in my family and since it snowed at the weekend (always seems to snow in March here), I wanted to make something warming and comforting to eat by the fire with massive cups of tea.

The cupcakes are studded with rum-soaked raisins.

To make these you will need:

125 g raisins
60 ml rum
1 tablespoon soft brown sugar

Place these ingredients in a small saucepan and mix. Bring the mixture to the boil and then simmer for 30 seconds until the rum has been absorbed. Set the raisins aside whilst you make the cupcake mixture.

To make the cupcake mixture you will need:

185g unsalted butter
2 eggs, lightly beaten
250 g self raising flour
60ml Greek yoghurt
60ml milk

Preheat the oven to 180 C

Cream the butter and sugar together well using an electric mixer or by hand. Add the beaten eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Adding a tablespoon of flour with the second egg will prevent it from curdling. Fold in half of the flour. Mix the milk and Greek yoghurt together in a separate bowl and then fold this in. Fold in the rest of the flour. Carefully mix the rum-soaked raisins into the mixture.

Spoon your mixture into bun cases. I ended up filling about 15 cases. Bake your cupcakes for around 15 minutes or until an inserted skewer remains clean. Leave your cupcakes to cool whilst you make the rum frosting.

To make the frosting you will need:

1 tsp instant coffee granules
125 g softened unsalted butter
180g icing sugar
15 ml rum

Dissolve the coffee granules in 2 tsp of boiling water. In a large bowl, beat the butter and icing sugar until light. Add the rum and the coffee and beat well until smooth. Ice each of the cupcakes. I decorated mine with extra rum soaked raisins.