To cut a long story short, Rob has said that I am an excellent cake maker at his work and I need to produce 2 amazing cakes for a competition that they are doing.
HELP!!!!
Any ideas?.... (please).
coznbob, this has always been one of my standbys:-
WHISKY CAKE
Cake
7 oz stoned raisins
4 oz whole walnuts
6 oz plain flour )
1 level teaspoon bicarb ) Flour mixture
½ level teaspoon cinnamon ) (sieved together)
½ level teaspoon nutmeg )
½ level teaspoon allspice )
¾ level teaspoon salt )
4 oz margarine or butter
5 oz caster sugar
1 tablespoon whisky
1 egg
Filling and icing
2 oz butter
6 oz icing sugar
2 tablespoons whisky
cherries
Method
Simmer raisins in water for 20 minutes, drain, reserving one third pint of the liquid. Cool.
Cream margarine or butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Beat egg and add, fold in flour mixture. Add raisin liquid. Chop walnuts (leaving a few for decoration) and add with raisins and 1 tablespoon whisky. Pour into two prepared 7†tins and bake in centre of pre-heated oven (mark 4, 350oF, 180oC) for about 40 minutes, or until firm to touch. Remove from oven and leave to stand in tins for a few minutes. Turn out and leave to cool on a wire rack.
Cream butter and icing sugar with 2 tablespoons whisky. Sandwich cakes together with some of the butter cream. Spread the rest on top and decorate with remaining walnut halves, cherries, etc.
This is a beautifully light fruit/sponge cake.
Another one I love is the Austrian Sachertorte. A lovely rich chocolate cake. The recipe I use is in an ancient Good Housekeeping Continental cookbook. I haven't got it on disc so that I can copy it, but if you fancy it I can type it out.
The only recommendation I would make is that you have a practice run before trying a new recipe, particularly for a competition.
best of luck,
valmarg
Here's one I tried last year. Someone produced it at a meeting I went to, and she got the recipe from a very old Margerite Patten book. I googled it and got this: It's very popular with the family, and easy to do because the treacly ingredients can be measured in the saucepan.
STICKY GINGERBREAD
Cake:
3 oz butter/margarine
3 oz light soft brown sugar
4 oz black treacle
4 oz golden syrup
6 oz plain white flour
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
finely grated rind of a lemon
1 egg, beaten
5 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 oz preserved stem ginger in syrup, drained and chopped into small pieces (1 or 2 mm-ish cubes)
Topping:
2 oz icing sugar
1-2 tsp lemon juice
preserved stem ginger pieces, to decorate
preheat the oven to 170C/325F/gas mark 3. grease and base line a 2 pint loaf tin.
melt the butter, sugar, treacle and syrup in a saucepan over a low heat and stir until evenly blended. cool slightly.
sift together the flour and ground spices into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. add the lemon rind with the treacle mixture, egg and milk. beat well to mix, whisking if necessary, until smooth.
dissolve the bicarbonate in 1 tbsp hot water. add to the gingerbread mixture with the chopped ginger, stir well and pour into the prepared tin.
bake for an hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack and leave until cold.
for the topping, mix the icing sugar with enough lemon juice to form a smooth, thin glace icing. drizzle over the gingerbread and top with slices of ginger.
store in an airtight container for up to one week.
NB: With the second cake I made I increased slightly the quantities of spices and stem ginger and it greatly improved the flavour. But that’s a matter of individual taste.
This is my never fail cake, it keeps well too and is good for picnics etc. It is nicer than it sounds and quite easy to make.
Banana and Chocolate Chip Cake
2 ripe bananas
6 oz margarine
8 oz sugar
3 eggs beaten
10oz SR flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp bicarb
4 oz choc chips
Mash the bananas.
Melt the margarine and sugar in a large pan.
Add the flour, bicarb and salt.
Beat in the eggs and bananas.
Cool slightly and stir in the chocolate chips.
Place in an 8†deep cake tin and bake at 160º C (150º fan oven) for 55 mins or until skewer comes clean.
Thank you all so much, it has been ages since I cooked 'proper' cakes and had a bit of a panic,all I seem to do now are fairy cakes and rice crispie cakes for the PTA!
Sent Rob out last night to buy huge quantities of ingredients so I could practice at the week end. Will let you know how I get on! ;D