Oh, wow. I never really struggle to make a cake, but this one really is a cinch.
You will need:
One tub of yogurt (I used Muller Light in coconut and dark chocolate - yum!)
Empty it into a mixing bowl, rinse the tub out and dry it, and use it to measure out:
2 tubs of sugar (I used 1 and a bit and it's sweet enough)
3 cups of SR flour
1 cup of oil
3 eggs (don't measure these!! - but I put the shells in the tub to keep things tidy :))
Mix it all up together. I used a whisk but it would be easy enough to use a fork/egg beater type thing. Bung it in a tin. Bake for a while at 180 C. I say a while, because I put mine in a loaf tin that wasn't big enough, and it all exploded all over the oven, and that's obviously going to take over an hour to bake. However, this is a very adaptable sort of mix, so you could bake it in a brownie pan, or even in a bun tin, so just keep an eye on it and don't let it burn etc etc.
My cake is baking as I type, but the bits that overflowed all over the baking tray that I picked off and ate were just SO yummy that I had to get the recipe down now. It has a very subtle taste of yogurt, so I imagine other flavours would work well too, i.e. toffee, vanilla and chocolate, chocolate orange. I'm not sure how great it would be with yogurt with bits in, but I'm currently willing to give it all a go!!
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Friday, 18 November 2011
Chocolate Frosting
Hmmm. Not really keen on the word "frosting" ("Normally I would abhor such Americanisation" tm Richard Howard) but "icing" doesn't quite cover it, and "cake covering" is not really it either.
This stuff is lush. It will fill and top OR cover an 8 or 9 inch cake. If you want it to do both, make double - simples! I'm not sure how well it keeps but I imagine it would freeze okay. It never really lasts that long in this house!
You will need:
345g icing sugar
30g cocoa powder
85g butter
75ml evaporated milk
5ml vanilla extract
Cream the butter in a bowl. Gradually incorporate the icing sugar and cocoa, alternating it with blobs of evaporated milk. Finally, beat in the vanilla extract (do not even THINK about using nasty vanilla flavouring - you want the stuff that comes in a large glass bottle, or that Madagascan stuff from M&S) - voila! Easy peasy.
This stuff is lush. It will fill and top OR cover an 8 or 9 inch cake. If you want it to do both, make double - simples! I'm not sure how well it keeps but I imagine it would freeze okay. It never really lasts that long in this house!
You will need:
345g icing sugar
30g cocoa powder
85g butter
75ml evaporated milk
5ml vanilla extract
Cream the butter in a bowl. Gradually incorporate the icing sugar and cocoa, alternating it with blobs of evaporated milk. Finally, beat in the vanilla extract (do not even THINK about using nasty vanilla flavouring - you want the stuff that comes in a large glass bottle, or that Madagascan stuff from M&S) - voila! Easy peasy.
Thursday, 10 November 2011
Christmas Cake
This is the cake I made last year - it was awesome. It takes a while to make it, but it's well worth it, and the level of actual effort required is practically nil. Here's the recipe:
600g raisins, sultanas or a mix of both (I like the Asda raisin and sultana mix)
250g currants
100ml alcohol plus 100ml more for feeding
250g plain flour
2 tsp mixed spice
200g butter
200g soft dark brown sugar
4 free range eggs
Grated zest of one orange and one lemon
75g nuts, finely chopped
100g glace cherries, quartered
1. Put the raisins, sultanas and currants into a big bowl and slosh on the booze. I always use more than 100ml! Last year I think I did rum, but this year, just to be posh, I'm using organic whisky. It smells lush, and I don't even like whisky! Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave it to soak for 24 hours, stirring occasionally.
2. Line a tin (20cm-deep square tin - I got mine from Tesco - or 22cm-deep round tin) with three layers of baking paper. This is a real pain, but do it anyway. Preheat the oven to 150C/130C fan/Gas 2. Wrap the outside of the tin with a double layer of newspaper or brown paper and tie it in place with string.
3. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding 1 tbsp of flour with each one.
4. Quarter the cherries, using scissors, and drop them into the flour. This helps them to stop sticking to every damn thing they come into contact with. Put the flour and cherries into the mixing bowl, along with the orange and lemon zest, spice, nuts, boozy fruit and any soaking liquid that's left. Note: I don't put nuts in my cake, so leave them out if you like. I also may throw in (depending on my mood) extra cinnamon, nutmeg and/or ginger.
5. Put the mixture into the tin and level the top. Pat the top with wet fingers - sounds odd, but it stops the top of the cake drying out during the long cooking time.
6. Bake the cake for two hours, then reduce the temperature to 140C/120C fan/Gas 1 and bake for a further hour and 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. If it starts to brown too much, cover the top with a double piece of baking paper. I usually do this after two hours. Remove the cake from the tin and cool it on a rack, but don't remove the baking paper. Wrap the cake in foil and store it in an airtight container.
7. After a week, unwrap the cake and pierce with a skewer all over the top. Apply booze liberally. Repeat weekly until Christmas.
Ta-Daaaaahhhhh!!
If you can be bothered, decorate the cake. Brush it all over with warmed sieved apricot jam, then add a layer of rolled-out marzipan. Brush the jam over the top of the marzipan, then put on a layer of rolled-out icing. You can then add ribbons/festive characters/whatever, and everyone will think you bought it. Winner.
600g raisins, sultanas or a mix of both (I like the Asda raisin and sultana mix)
250g currants
100ml alcohol plus 100ml more for feeding
250g plain flour
2 tsp mixed spice
200g butter
200g soft dark brown sugar
4 free range eggs
Grated zest of one orange and one lemon
75g nuts, finely chopped
100g glace cherries, quartered
1. Put the raisins, sultanas and currants into a big bowl and slosh on the booze. I always use more than 100ml! Last year I think I did rum, but this year, just to be posh, I'm using organic whisky. It smells lush, and I don't even like whisky! Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave it to soak for 24 hours, stirring occasionally.
2. Line a tin (20cm-deep square tin - I got mine from Tesco - or 22cm-deep round tin) with three layers of baking paper. This is a real pain, but do it anyway. Preheat the oven to 150C/130C fan/Gas 2. Wrap the outside of the tin with a double layer of newspaper or brown paper and tie it in place with string.
3. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding 1 tbsp of flour with each one.
4. Quarter the cherries, using scissors, and drop them into the flour. This helps them to stop sticking to every damn thing they come into contact with. Put the flour and cherries into the mixing bowl, along with the orange and lemon zest, spice, nuts, boozy fruit and any soaking liquid that's left. Note: I don't put nuts in my cake, so leave them out if you like. I also may throw in (depending on my mood) extra cinnamon, nutmeg and/or ginger.
5. Put the mixture into the tin and level the top. Pat the top with wet fingers - sounds odd, but it stops the top of the cake drying out during the long cooking time.
6. Bake the cake for two hours, then reduce the temperature to 140C/120C fan/Gas 1 and bake for a further hour and 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. If it starts to brown too much, cover the top with a double piece of baking paper. I usually do this after two hours. Remove the cake from the tin and cool it on a rack, but don't remove the baking paper. Wrap the cake in foil and store it in an airtight container.
7. After a week, unwrap the cake and pierce with a skewer all over the top. Apply booze liberally. Repeat weekly until Christmas.
Ta-Daaaaahhhhh!!
If you can be bothered, decorate the cake. Brush it all over with warmed sieved apricot jam, then add a layer of rolled-out marzipan. Brush the jam over the top of the marzipan, then put on a layer of rolled-out icing. You can then add ribbons/festive characters/whatever, and everyone will think you bought it. Winner.
Saturday, 26 March 2011
Estate Agents
I never quite understood the almost universal hatred of estate agents until today, never having really come into contact with them before. It's not the people as such, just the entire searching-for-suitable-property experience ("suitable" being the operative word here).
Brief backstory: we decided this week to move from our (hugely expensive, freezing inWinter, boiling in Summer plus sky-high bills and a temperamental boiler) rented house and find somewhere a bit nearer to Mathilda's nursery in Norden.
Being me, I felt obliged to scour Rightmove for anything that looked promising and put it on a spreadsheet, with details of the area, bedrooms, price and estate agent, with a contact number. I sent it to Gary, who sent me back the revised list, which I printed off and started to work through.
Problem #1: They have later and much-reduced opening hours on Saturdays. Normally I would be fine with that, but in a Liz Jones-kind of way, when I want something I expect everyone to be in and working and ready to help me, none of this pesky office-hours business.
Problem #2: Would it really be so difficult to include a little more information in the online property searches? Just basic stuff like "No smoking" or "No dogs" etc. I'm sure this kind of thing is already asked of prospective landlords in the long, tedious forms they are probably asked to fill in for the privilege of having an estate agency take a cut of their rent. But no. Instead, I have to ring around, asking about each individual property, only to be told "I'll have to find out and get back to you - probably on Monday."
Problem #3: We really liked a property in Bacup, so I phoned up and left a message, and then phoned back when they didn't return my call, had the whole conversation about pets and was (eventually) told that small children would be fine, but one very lazy cat would require an additional bond, as they had recently redecorated. Seriously?? Even if Fergus scratched the walls at full capacity (probably once a day on his scratching post, if he can be bothered!) there is no way he could even begin to wreak the havoc potentially caused by two inventive toddlers. But okay. Maybe this landlord has had a bad experience with a particularly destructive cat - who knows? But there is no way we are going to be paying "at least £1000 bond plus the first month's rent" just because we have a cat. Thanks but no thanks. Another two properties gave us a straight "no".
Problem #4: I went to view a 3-bed property in Norden today. I took Mathilda with me, just to ease her into the idea that moving house could be something new and fun. I really liked the house; there were a few minor issues, but overall it had lots of potential. However, two notes: one, the house was not "well presented" - the carpets were a bit tatty and the laminate flooring in the kitchen had gaps in it. Overall, if it hadn't been located where it was, I might have thought it had been empty for quite some time. That doesn't really bother me - we have small kids and to be honest it would be nice not to have heart failure every time one of them picks up a crayon. The big one was note two - if you can't fit a bed in it, it isn't a bedroom. If, by some miracle, you managed to squeeze a bed into "bedroom 3", you would not be able to put anything else in it. This is blatant mis-selling and it irritates the life out of me. Do people really think you won't notice that you can't stand in the room AND shut the door at the same time?
I am now waiting to hear back about another property in Norden. We did a brief drive-by and it's in a little cul-de-sac in a quiet area, close to the village and Mathilda's nursery. Apparently the current tenant has a cat but the landlord is anxious about it. The estate agent said he might consider a pet depending on the "calibre of the tenant", so I guess we are going to have to present ourselves well and hope for the best. I've only been looking for a couple of days and I'm already bored and disillusioned.
Brief backstory: we decided this week to move from our (hugely expensive, freezing inWinter, boiling in Summer plus sky-high bills and a temperamental boiler) rented house and find somewhere a bit nearer to Mathilda's nursery in Norden.
Being me, I felt obliged to scour Rightmove for anything that looked promising and put it on a spreadsheet, with details of the area, bedrooms, price and estate agent, with a contact number. I sent it to Gary, who sent me back the revised list, which I printed off and started to work through.
Problem #1: They have later and much-reduced opening hours on Saturdays. Normally I would be fine with that, but in a Liz Jones-kind of way, when I want something I expect everyone to be in and working and ready to help me, none of this pesky office-hours business.
Problem #2: Would it really be so difficult to include a little more information in the online property searches? Just basic stuff like "No smoking" or "No dogs" etc. I'm sure this kind of thing is already asked of prospective landlords in the long, tedious forms they are probably asked to fill in for the privilege of having an estate agency take a cut of their rent. But no. Instead, I have to ring around, asking about each individual property, only to be told "I'll have to find out and get back to you - probably on Monday."
Problem #3: We really liked a property in Bacup, so I phoned up and left a message, and then phoned back when they didn't return my call, had the whole conversation about pets and was (eventually) told that small children would be fine, but one very lazy cat would require an additional bond, as they had recently redecorated. Seriously?? Even if Fergus scratched the walls at full capacity (probably once a day on his scratching post, if he can be bothered!) there is no way he could even begin to wreak the havoc potentially caused by two inventive toddlers. But okay. Maybe this landlord has had a bad experience with a particularly destructive cat - who knows? But there is no way we are going to be paying "at least £1000 bond plus the first month's rent" just because we have a cat. Thanks but no thanks. Another two properties gave us a straight "no".
Problem #4: I went to view a 3-bed property in Norden today. I took Mathilda with me, just to ease her into the idea that moving house could be something new and fun. I really liked the house; there were a few minor issues, but overall it had lots of potential. However, two notes: one, the house was not "well presented" - the carpets were a bit tatty and the laminate flooring in the kitchen had gaps in it. Overall, if it hadn't been located where it was, I might have thought it had been empty for quite some time. That doesn't really bother me - we have small kids and to be honest it would be nice not to have heart failure every time one of them picks up a crayon. The big one was note two - if you can't fit a bed in it, it isn't a bedroom. If, by some miracle, you managed to squeeze a bed into "bedroom 3", you would not be able to put anything else in it. This is blatant mis-selling and it irritates the life out of me. Do people really think you won't notice that you can't stand in the room AND shut the door at the same time?
I am now waiting to hear back about another property in Norden. We did a brief drive-by and it's in a little cul-de-sac in a quiet area, close to the village and Mathilda's nursery. Apparently the current tenant has a cat but the landlord is anxious about it. The estate agent said he might consider a pet depending on the "calibre of the tenant", so I guess we are going to have to present ourselves well and hope for the best. I've only been looking for a couple of days and I'm already bored and disillusioned.
Monday, 14 March 2011
More on Japan
Tonight, we managed a rare uninterrupted viewing of the 6 o’clock news. Naturally, the headlines were all about the terrible earthquake and tsunami in Japan, describing the towns left devastated and the number of bodies found. I suppose we have all been left somewhat desensitised by years of violence in the media (both fictional and non-fictional) because up until tonight, I watched the news with a feeling of detachment. Of course I felt sad that bad things happened, and sympathised with those affected by whatever tragedy was news that day, but it didn’t have any real impact on me. It wasn’t really something that applied to me or to my life.
Tonight, something different happened. For a second, I pictured the people in Japan, just getting on with their day, whatever that entailed. They didn’t know what was about to happen, and they wouldn’t have known what to do other than following the standard procedures I assume they had in place to deal with earthquakes, just as we have procedures for dealing with fires at work. You know it’s a possibility but you don’t expect that it’s really going to happen to you. I looked at my husband, my two little girls. What would we have done? Which child would we each have taken charge of?
Sidenote: I enjoy action-adventure films for what I think is a fairly standard reason – that you are pulled along with the adventurers and you become part of that group. You become part of the gang, and as such you are capable of having adventures, taking risks, making discoveries fearlessly and successfully. However, in real life it’s a different story. I’m well aware that I would not be a survivor in any disaster movie, in fact I would probably be the idiot that perishes first. I’m unathletic on a good day, and physically uncoordinated the rest of the time. I have no useful practical skills which I could helpfully apply in an emergency. All of this makes me wonder whether I would have the sense (in an emergency situation) to hand over both daughters to my husband for safekeeping and resign myself to my fate!
I’m not sure of the purpose of all this pondering; it was just very strange to realise that the victims of this disaster were probably just like me. To quote Phoebe Buffay:
“Yeah, it's just so strange. I mean, she probably woke up today and thought, "Ok, I'll have some breakfast, and then I'll take a little walk, and then I'll have my massage." Little did she know God was thinking, "Ok, but that's it."
Friday, 11 March 2011
Most Awesome Chocolate Cake In The World!!1!!11!
No word of a lie.
My aunt and uncle are visiting from N. Ireland this weekend, and we're going over for Sunday lunch. I said I would bring pudding in one form or another, and as my mum's doing a full-on roast beef dinner, I thought cake would be a good option. Because cake is always a good option, let's face it.
So here is my recipe for the best chocolate cake everrrrrrrr, a bit annoying and faffy to make in places but always always light, fluffy and yummy. I thought I'd better write it down somewhere as I keep losing the bit of paper it's currently written on. Here we go:
Ingredients
75g cocoa
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 medium eggs
370g light muscovado sugar
180ml groundnut oil
200g sifted SR flour
Note: I don't get too stressed out about the ingredients and neither does the cake. For example, I only ever have large eggs in the house, so they go in. I usually use light soft brown sugar, or whatever I can find, I've even used caster sugar before. I never have groundnut oil in the house, so I use any other kind of vegetable or sunflower oil. Obviously if you have everything in, that's spot on. Also, if you use the best quality cocoa and chocolate you can find, the cake will taste great. If you use Extra Value chocolate flavoured cake topping, that's what it's going to taste like.
Ingredients
125g milk chocolate, broken up into pieces.
20g butter
30g sifted cocoa powder
60ml milk
1 tbsp runny honey (or golden syrup/maple syrup/anything golden and sticky!)
You're going to be consuming about a gazillion calories per slice, but hey, enjoy it while it lasts. You could get run over by a bus tomorrow. Liz Hurley once said "I'd rather have a small bottom than a piece of cake" and look what happened to her. Anyway, for me, a piece of cake is achievable, whereas a small bottom... never gonna happen.
Anyway - enjoy. Edited to add pictures.
* If you're going to bake regularly, it's worth investing in decent cake tins, and the loose-bottomed variety make it easier to get the cakes out. Also, I know lining the tins is a royal pain but it really does make all the difference, both for baking evenly and removing the cakes.
My aunt and uncle are visiting from N. Ireland this weekend, and we're going over for Sunday lunch. I said I would bring pudding in one form or another, and as my mum's doing a full-on roast beef dinner, I thought cake would be a good option. Because cake is always a good option, let's face it.
So here is my recipe for the best chocolate cake everrrrrrrr, a bit annoying and faffy to make in places but always always light, fluffy and yummy. I thought I'd better write it down somewhere as I keep losing the bit of paper it's currently written on. Here we go:
Ingredients
75g cocoa
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 medium eggs
370g light muscovado sugar
180ml groundnut oil
200g sifted SR flour
Note: I don't get too stressed out about the ingredients and neither does the cake. For example, I only ever have large eggs in the house, so they go in. I usually use light soft brown sugar, or whatever I can find, I've even used caster sugar before. I never have groundnut oil in the house, so I use any other kind of vegetable or sunflower oil. Obviously if you have everything in, that's spot on. Also, if you use the best quality cocoa and chocolate you can find, the cake will taste great. If you use Extra Value chocolate flavoured cake topping, that's what it's going to taste like.
- Whisk the cocoa into 200ml boiling water, then whisk in the bicarbonate of soda. Leave it to cool for about 20 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas 4. Butter or oil two 20cm loose-bottomed cake tins and line them with baking paper.*
- Whisk together the eggs, sugar and oil in a bowl until smooth, then stir in the flour and then the cocoa solution. Divide the mixture between the two cake tins and give each tin a sharp tap on the work surface to bring up any air bubbles.
- Bake the cakes for 30-40 minutes, until they are well-risen and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave the cakes to cool.
- When the cakes are cold, remove them from the tins and peel off the baking paper. If they have gone a bit dome-shaped, you might like to slice the top off one of them, and turn it over so it sits on the cut side. This minimises wobble. Of course, it's up to you what you do with the extra bit of cake...
- If you like, you can stick some filling between the two cakes - suggestions are whipped cream, buttercream, black cherry jam, even warmed Nutella works quite well! Or any combination of the above. However, if you want to go for the full whammy, read on...
 |
| Don't accidentally lick the fork - not nice! |
Ingredients
125g milk chocolate, broken up into pieces.
20g butter
30g sifted cocoa powder
60ml milk
1 tbsp runny honey (or golden syrup/maple syrup/anything golden and sticky!)
- Gently melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl set over a pan containing a little simmering water, stirring until smooth. If you're feeling brave, you can do it in the microwave on a very low heat, checking regularly. If it seizes up and goes greasy, you're going to have to start again.
- At the same time, stir together the cocoa, milk and honey in a small saucepan and heat it up until it's almost boiling, stirring it well. Push it through a sieve into the bowl with the melted chocolate, and give it all a good stir until you get a thick, glossy icing.
- Using a serrated knife (the finer the better), slice both cakes in half across-wise, giving you four thin layers of cake.
Nice messy working surface - oh well!
I tend to sandwich the halves together with the chocolate icing, and then sandwich the two cakes together with whipped cream, because I find three lots of chocolate icing is a bit rich and sort of sticks to the roof of your mouth a bit. However, I think three smaller amounts of chocolate filling, topped with a thin layer of whipped cream on each might work well, or as above, buttercream/cherry jam/fruit/whatever. You can also double up on the icing and put some on the top of the cake too, but it tends to go a bit dribbly down the sides before it sets and I'm not really into that.
 |
| Chocolate filling on - just about to add whipped cream |
 |
| Ta-Daaaahh! |
You're going to be consuming about a gazillion calories per slice, but hey, enjoy it while it lasts. You could get run over by a bus tomorrow. Liz Hurley once said "I'd rather have a small bottom than a piece of cake" and look what happened to her. Anyway, for me, a piece of cake is achievable, whereas a small bottom... never gonna happen.
Anyway - enjoy. Edited to add pictures.
* If you're going to bake regularly, it's worth investing in decent cake tins, and the loose-bottomed variety make it easier to get the cakes out. Also, I know lining the tins is a royal pain but it really does make all the difference, both for baking evenly and removing the cakes.
Japanese earthquake
BBC News
There isn't much I can say without sounding trite or stating the downright obvious. This is a disaster on an epic scale and I'm sure everyone's thoughts and prayers* are with the Japanese people, in particular those who have lost loved ones or their homes, and those who are still waiting for news.
* delete where applicable
There isn't much I can say without sounding trite or stating the downright obvious. This is a disaster on an epic scale and I'm sure everyone's thoughts and prayers* are with the Japanese people, in particular those who have lost loved ones or their homes, and those who are still waiting for news.
* delete where applicable
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