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. 

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!

Chocolate Triumph Cake

I call it Triumph because it's a glorious incarnation of all that is chocolate. Chocolate sponge and chocolate frosting all surrounded with chocolate biscuits and sweets.

I did a similar cake a couple of years ago for my Mum's birthday. That was just chocolate fingers and smarties. And I love decorating cakes with kitkats round the edges. I've seen this super chocolate version a few times and just had to have a go. It's super easy and I think it looks great!

I'm not writing a recipe, so just take your favourite 8" chocolate sponge recipe and add the following:

1 tub of chocolate frosting

3 packets of chocolate fingers

1 chocolate bar (that you can snap pieces off)*

6 packets of chocolates of your choice

See, I didn't even make the frosting. Shhhhh it's a secret but I'm a big fan of this icing. Tell anyone I cheat from time to time and I'll hunt you down!

So take your cooled cakes and fill and cover with icing. Then pop the chocolate fingers all around the cake so they stick to the frosting. 

You'll need 6 chocolate fingers for the top of the cake so don't eat what's left just yet! Put these on top at 12pm, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10.

You'll have a gap in the middle which you need to fill with some larger chocolates. *You can use a bar (like Dairy Milk) which you can snap pieces from but I used two mini Cadbury caramels. You could use ferrero rocher, mini Cadbury creme eggs, chocolate orange pieces......

Then fill in each sixth with your chosen chocolates. I used giant buttons, maltesers, peanut M&Ms, minstrels, white buttons and smarties. I lined mine in a symmetrical pattern but you don't need to, I just thought it looked nicer.

If you have some ribbon, secure this around the chocolate fingers for extra support to keep them attached to the cake.

Savour the heady smell of all that lush chocolate 

Ice cream cupcakes

These are just too cute. They look like real ice cream cones but in my opinion these are much better. I do like ice cream though I don't eat it often. I much prefer cupcakes!

You need to buy the ice cream cups rather than cones so be careful which pack you pick up in the supermarket! You could make any flavour cake recipe and I put a twist in mine by scooping out some of the centre and filling with raspberry jam. And don't forget the flakes!

Ingredients:

125g caster sugar

125g butter/margarine 

125g self raising flour

2 eggs

3 tbsp jam

Buttercream

6 flakes cut in half (from the packs you get for ice cream if not then 3 normal flakes 

Sprinkles

Preheat the oven to 190/170 fan and fill a muffin tin with ice cream cups so they stand up. Cream the butter and sugar together. Mix in the eggs and flour and fill each of the cones about 2/3rds full.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean. Prick the bottoms with a skewer a few times to let some of the steam out to avoid the cup going soggy inside and leave to cool on a wire rack. 

Remove some of the centre of each cup and fill with raspberry jam. 

I had some buttercream left over already but a quantity of 250g butter and 500g icing sugar will be more than enough. Pipe with a star nozzle in swirls onto each cone and top with a flake and sprinkles 

Sweetie traybake

It's my son's school BBQ tomorrow and they need cake! I've seen a few of these around and have loads of spare sweets (yeah I know!) so decided to kill two birds with one stone.

This is an orange coloured and flavoured sponge slathered in white chocolate and topped with sweets. You can use any sweets you like of course. Super simple, super quick and what child is going to say no to a slice?!

Ingredients:

8oz caster sugar 

8oz butter/margarine 

8oz self raising flour

4 eggs

Orange food colouring

Orange flavouring

200g white chocolate 

Lots of sweets

Preheat the oven to 190/170 fan and line a 9x9 baking tin with grease proof paper.

Beat together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy then add half the flour and two eggs. Beat in then add the rest of the flour and the remaining two eggs along with the food colouring and flavouring (I added 1tbsp as mine is quite weak).

Pour into the tin and bake for 25 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. 

Leave to cool then melt the chocolate. I melt mine in the microwave on half power and check every 30 seconds (this only took 60 to melt as it's very hot today). Pour over the cooled cake, leave a couple of minutes then adorn with the sweetie selection of your choice.

This cake has to put a smile on your face!

Violet Cream Cupcakes

Both my mum and I are huge fans of Rose and Violet creams. We usually buy each other a box for birthday and Christmas presents. Dark chocolate covering rose and violet flavoured centres. Yummy!

The supermarket we visit on holiday in Spain sells rose jam and violet jam (made in France). Two years ago I used the rose jam to make Turkish delight cupcakes. In May I bought a jar of violet jam this time with a view to using it to make a cake for my mum's birthday. I decided not to make a cake though as violet is a unique taste and not one everyone likes, so I decided to make cupcakes instead and I only made 6. I baked chocolate cupcakes using my devil's food recipe but flavoured it with violet flavouring (I bought it in Lakeland).

I filled the centres of the cupcakes with the violet jam then topped with plain buttercream coloured purple. I decided not to add any flavouring to the buttercream as there was enough violet flavour in the cupcake batter and jam. 

If you really can't stand violets or can't get your hands on the jam, this recipe works perfectly for any jam you'd like in the centre of your cupcakes. You could even use marmalade and flavour your cake batter with orange essence. Lakeland sells loads of different flavourings you could use.

The recipe here makes 12 cupcakes 

50g cocoa powder

100g dark brown muscovado sugar

250 ml boiling water

125g soft unsalted butter

150g caster sugar

225g plain flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 large eggs

15-20 drops of violet flavouring 

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250g very soft butter

500g icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 170c fan.

Put the cocoa and dark muscovado sugar into a bowl and pour in the boiling water. Whisk to mix, then set aside. 

Cream the butter and caster sugar together, beating well until pale and fluffy then add the violet flavouring.

Measure the flour, baking powder and bicarb together in another bowl, and set aside for a moment. Add 1 egg to the creamed butter and sugar, followed by a scoopful of flour mixture, then the second egg. Keep mixing and incorporate the rest of the dried ingredients for the cupcakes, then finally mix and fold in the cocoa mixture, scraping the bowl well with a spatula.

It's a runny batter so I used a spoon to fill the muffin cases until 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean then leave to cool reading for filling and frosting.

You can now make the buttercream. Beat together butter and icing sugar until combined then beat for a good 5 minutes until it lightens in colour. If it's too stiff add a splash of milk. Then mix in some purple colouring (I use gel colours)

I have a cupcake corer (check me out!) so I used that to take the middles out of the cupcakes. If you don't have one just use a knife to cut the centres out. Fill each cupcake centre with the jam then pipe each one with buttercream.

Happy birthday Mum!!xx

Cocktail win!

Lucky lucky me won a competition. I don't win competitions (since then I've won two other competitions lol) but this one was one to put a massive smile on my face.

I'm a huge cocktail fan and through a like and share on Facebook through Independent Sheffield, I won one of each of the new cocktails on the menu at The Wick at Both Ends.

"Oh I bet you've only won 4" says hubby. But then the list came through. 11! 11 lovely cocktails to try. 

I won the competition in April but it was only this last weekend that I got chance to try them. Myself and husband hit town with my friend L to work our way through the list, before my friend P came to complete the list. Now I must add here that it was strongly advised that I alone should not drink all 11 in one evening. I could come over various visits or share with friends. But the 4 of us did manage all 11 in one evening.

The list:

So how to tackle the list? As the first to arrive I hadn't given this much though so plumped right into the middle of the list and ordered a The Beet Goes On. With beetroot, whisky, lemon, sugar and egg white this is definitely a unique cocktail and one you should definitely try but only if you like beetroot juice. The warm smoky undertones from the whisky were a nice highlight to this drink. A great start, I really enjoyed this cocktail. It was definitely the most refreshing of the night too.

What next? Hubby and L got in on this round and we ordered 3. 

Sloe Down Dear. Hubby had his eyes on this one. Sloe gin, blackberry liqueur, Apple and cranberry juices with lime and fresh mint. This was one of our favourites. Fruity without being overly fruity, a nice refreshing easy drinking cocktail 

I chose the Purple Haze. Tequila, absinthe, vimto, mint and lemon. A mojito with a twist. This was like vimto on steroids 

L had the Vanilla and Black Pepper Spiced Julep. Without a doubt the strongest cocktail we had that evening. Buffalo trace, black pepper, mint, vanilla syrup and lime. Corrr that's strong!

Next round!

Piña Colada for hubby. Who doesn't like this drink?! Very very creamy, very very tasty 

For me an Absinthe Minded. Absinthe, cherry heering, cherry syrup, lemon and sugar. I watched this being made and not happy with the straw taste test, the girl making it adjusted it accordingly. This reminded me a bit of a cherry bakewell with a marzipan top. And the little cherries on top were yummy

A big gin fan, L had a Negroni Rose. Gin, St Germain, Lillet Blanc and Campari. Bitter sweet tasting, refreshing. This was one of L's favourite 

Next round and my friend P arrived. The last 4 cocktails. I decided I should have the most expensive on the list so had the Boheminan Like Me. Pampero, Myers dark rum, absinthe, Mozart liqueur, hibiscus, chocolate bitters, green chartreuse and a chocolate and absinthe truffle. I was expecting this to be sickly but it wasn't at all. Very strong tasting, can't liken it to anything. A really unique tasting drink. 

Hubby had the Dandelion & Burdock Old Fashioned. Tequila, dandelion and burdock bitters, grapefruit and chai tea syrup, this was his favourite. Tasting a bit like brandy with a kick of that unique dandelion and burdock taste. 

The final drink for L, very creamy and rich but delicious tasting was the Rhubarb & Custard. Vodka, rhubarb and apple with custard, strawberry and popping candy. A sweetie in drink form. 

And the last drink, maybe the creamiest of the night was the Custard C.R.E.A.M. 

Vanilla vodka, caramel, half & half and biscuit mix with lots of cream and a custard cream on top. Definitely one not to drink if you're on a calorie controlled diet. 

What a way to finish off the list!

A huge thank you once again to The Wick At Both Ends and Independent Sheffield. We had a fab time working through the list. It surely was an amazing prize to win. I can't wait to go back to sample the other cocktails on the menu