The Pink Whisk Brilliant Baking Step-by-Step Cake Making (18 page)

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Authors: Ruth Clemens

BOOK: The Pink Whisk Brilliant Baking Step-by-Step Cake Making

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5 Pour into the prepared tin, pop it in the oven and set the timer!

6 Once baked allow it to cool in the tin a little before carefully lifting out using the lining paper and set onto a wire rack to cool completely. Serve.

Ginger Treacle Cake

For those who like things a little darker and spicier give this ginger treacle cake a go.

Makes one 900g (2lb) loaf cake

Prep: 15 minutes plus cooling

Bake: 40 minutes

Oven: 160°c (fan)/180°c/350°F/Gas Mark 4

Ingredients

75g (2
³⁄
₄oz) butter

50g (1
³⁄
₄oz) light Muscovado sugar

75g (2
³⁄
₄oz) golden (corn) syrup

75g (2
³⁄
₄oz) black treacle (blackstrap molasses)

100ml (3
¹⁄
₂fl oz) boiling water

200g (7oz) plain (all-purpose) flour

¹⁄
₂tsp baking powder

¹⁄
₂tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp ground ginger

Equipment

900g (2lb) loaf tin (pan), 18.5 × 11.5cm (7 × 4
¹⁄
₂in)

Medium pan

TIP

Go to town with the ginger if you like it fiery, adding in 3 tsp instead of 2.

1 Follow the same method for the Golden Syrup Cake, but replace half the quantity of syrup with treacle and add 2 tsp of ground ginger to the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.

Chocolate Orange Brownie Cake

Bursting with orange flavour – using a whole orange, skin and all in a recipe may seem a little strange but trust me it works brilliantly!

Makes one 20cm (8in) cake

Prep: 15 minutes plus cooling

Bake: 35 minutes

Oven: 180°c (fan)/200°c/400°F/Gas Mark 6

Ingredients

200g (7oz) dark (semisweet) chocolate, around 49% cocoa solids

140g (5oz) butter

225g (8oz) light Muscovado sugar

85g (3oz) plain (all-purpose) flour

3 eggs, large

1 whole orange

Equipment

20cm (8in) round cake tin (cake pan), at least 5cm (2in) deep

Baking (parchment) paper

Electric food processor or stick blender

1 Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan)/200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6. Grease and line the sides and base of the cake tin.

2 Place the chocolate and butter in a medium pan and heat over a gentle heat, stirring frequently until completely melted. Remove from the heat.

TIP

Using a 49% cocoa solids chocolate is best for this recipe unless you like a darker tasting chocolate. You can use a 70%+ cocoa solids chocolate but make sure it’s a cooks version otherwise it might split when melted in the pan.

3 In a separate bowl stir together the flour and sugar. Add this to the chocolate / butter pan and mix well.

TIP

Stirring the flour and sugar together before adding them to the chocolate / butter mixture stops you getting lumps of flour in the mixture that can be a monkey to get out!

4 Add the eggs to the mixture in the pan and beat well until they’re fully combined.

5 Now for the orange. Remove the brown stalky bit and chop it into quarters, then each quarter into half so you have 8 chunks of orange. Blitz the pieces in a food processor or with a handheld stick blender until they are the consistency of a chunky marmalade.

6 Add the blitzed orange to the mixture in the pan and stir well. Pour into the tin and bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes.

7 Once baked, allow time to cool the cake fully in the tin before removing and serving.

Banana & Cardamom Chocolate Brownie Cake

Chocolate is so versatile that many flavours can be paired with it, transforming the flavour of this brownie cake – blackberries, raspberries, peaches… the list goes on! Here I’ve gone with banana and cardamom; it’s always handy to have a recipe to use up the ripening bananas in the fruit bowl that everyone promised they’d eat three days ago!