Wednesday 30 September 2015

Mojito Cake

Second up in my Macmillan Coffee morning recipe posts is Mojito Cake

Yes there's rum
Yes there's mint
Yes there's sugar
Yes there's limes

It really is a Mojito Cake!



Ingredients:
150g light muscovado sugar
2 limes zested and juiced
50ml white rum
medium bunch of mint, chopped
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6 eggs
260g golden caster sugar
115g melted butter cooled to room temperature
260g plain flour
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400g icing sugar
200g butter
2 limes zested and juiced
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1 lime for decoration 


Make the syrup first so it has time to infuse all the lovely mint. Put the sugar, 40ml of water, lime juice and white rum into a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer so the sugar dissolves then boil for 1 minute. Take off the heat and add the lime zest and mint leaves. Allow the syrup to cool and leave on the side until you need it.



Preheat the oven to 200/180c fan and grease 2 x 20cm sandwich tins. Line the bases with baking paper. In a large bowl over a pan of simmering water, beat the eggs with the sugar with an electric hand whisk. Make sure the bottom of the bowl isn't touching the water. Beat for 10 minutes or until the mixture is thick and has tripled in volume.

Add the melted butter down the side of the bowl and fold in with a spatula taking care not to knock the air out of the eggs and sugar you have just whisked together. Add the flour in three goes, sifting in after each addition and fold in gently. Pour into your greased sandwich tins and bake for 15 minutes until browning on top and a cake tester comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tins.


Next make the frosting by mixing together the icing sugar and butter for a good 5 minutes until the mixture lightens in colour. Add in the lime juice and zest.

Now strain your sugar syrup to remove the mint leaves.


Take a pastry brush and brush the sugar syrup over the tops of the cooled sponges and repeat every few minutes as the sponges soak up the syrup. Continue until you have about a tablespoon of syrup left.



Then assemble your cake. Place one sponge on your serving platter/plate/cakeboard and cover with about 1/4 to a 1/3rd of the frosting. Place the second sponge on top then cover with the rest of the frosting smoothing it down the sides as well. Slice the remaining lime into rounds and decorate the top of the cake with them finishing with the final tablespoon of syrup.

As you can see I omitted the lime on the top of my cake but it makes no difference if you add it or not, it just looks nicer with. 







Monday 28 September 2015

Jaffa cakes

Is it a cake?

Is it a biscuit?

It's a biscuit! End of. Surely if it was a cake then supermarkets would sell them with the cakes and not the biscuits? See, I told you.


But I've also discovered that Jaffa Cakes are like marmite; you either love them or hate them.

I'm in the love category. I could eat a whole box. So when I came across Simon Rimmer's recipe for them I just had to have a go. And boy am I impressed. These are so much fun to make, I will absolutely be making these again for sure and I'd say they're not actually too difficult to make. 

The "biscuit" base is essentially cake (I maintain they're still a biscuit) topped with jelly topped with chocolate. Easy!

And very very delicious. I'm only sad that I only got to eat one. This recipe makes 12 but I had lots of jelly left as I didn't pour into a small enough dish so I could probably have made double if I'd made double the cake batter. Oh well

Ingredients:
2 eggs
50g caster sugar 
50g plain flour
135g pack orange jelly (cubes)
1 tbsp marmalade 
125ml boiling water 
175g dark chocolate 

Start by making the jelly to give it time to set. In a jug, melt down the jelly cubes with the hot water and marmalade. Pour into a large dish and leave to set for a few hours or overnight. Choose a dish so the jelly is about 1cm thick.


When the jelly is set, preheat the oven to 180/160c fan and grease a 12 hole muffin tin. 

Bring a little water to the boil in a pan and let it simmer slowly while you add the eggs and sugar to a bowl suspended over the water. Don't let the bowl touch the water. Whisk the eggs with an electric whisk for a few minutes until pale in colour and very airy. Add the flour until combined and a batter is formed. Pour into the muffin tin and bake for 8-10 minutes until pale golden brown and cooked through. Leave to cool then remove from the tin gently with a knife. 


Using a round cutter smaller than the sponges, cut out pieces of jelly and sit on top.


Melt the chocolate and pour on top carefully spreading it over the jelly onto the sponge but not too much so that it drops off. It's easier than it sounds. 

Leave to set then eat!