Buttermilk & Brown Sugar Cake

At last my new little bundt tin gets an outing with this cake whose recipe I found in Stella magazine.  It's a pretty simple pound type cake but the brown sugar and buttermilk combo does give it an unusual flavour (in a good way).  It would be great served with some macerated berries - I didn't get round to doing those but think it needed something slightly sharp to go with it.


Recipe


250g plain flour
1/4 tspn baking powder
pinch of salt
150g butter
300g soft brown sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tspn vanilla extract
finely grated zest of l lemon
150ml buttermilk
icing sugar, for sifting


1.  Preheat the oven to 160c/gas mark 3.  Butter a cake/bundt tin.
2.  Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.  Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy then add the eggs a little at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and lemon.
3.  Fold in the dry ingredients, alternating with big spoonfuls of buttermilk.  Pour into the tin and bake for 90 mins.  
4.  Turn the cake out on to a wire rack and leave to cool. Sift icing sugar over it once cooled. 

Raspberry & Coconut Friands

I'm a bit late posting this - summer has kicked off in all its glory with BBQs, drinks al fresco and cheering on Mr CB at his first 10km run.  All these fun and games haven't left me with much time to bake let alone write about the end result. I did find some time on Saturday afternoon however to make these delicious individual cakes whose recipe came from the wonderful Redonline. It was another excuse to get out my cute mini loaf tins too.  The sharpness of the raspberries works really well with the sweet macaroon centre.   I served them up at the carb loaded pre-run dinner with a scoop of ice cream. 


The Recipe


75g butter
grated rind of 1/2 lemon
3 medium egg whites
100g icing sugar
40g plain flour
50g dessicated coconut
25g ground almonds
a few raspberries


1. Preheat the oven to 200c/gas mark 6.   Lightly oil 6 individual metal friand or mini loaf tins and line the bases with greaseproof paper, then put the tins on a baking sheet.  Warm the butter and lemon rind in a small saucepan until the butter has just melted then leave to cool.
2. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then gradually whisk in the sugar, a bit at a time. Continue to whisk until smooth and glossy. 
3. Sift the flour over the top.  Add the coconut and ground almonds and gently fold together.  Gradually fold in the melted butter until just mixed. 
4.  Divide the mixture between the tins and smooth the surface.  Press a few raspberries into the cakes.  Bake for 15-20 minutes until the tops are golden and a skewer comes out clean.  
5.  Leave to cool for 5 mins then loosen the edges with a knife, turn out on to a wire rack and dust the top with sifted icing sugar.  

Orange & Almond Cake

My favourite cakes are those lovely dense citrusy ones which are delicious with a cup of afternoon tea or served warm as a pudding. This cake, with its scant amount of flour, is exactly one of those types and was a very good post BBQ cake as I found out this afternoon.  It is very easy to make - the most fiddly part is boiling and pureeing the orange which is not really particularly taxing. I haven't converted the measurements to metric as it's so easy to get hold of cup measurers now. I personally love not having to bother getting the scales out!


The Recipe


1 orange
3 eggs
1 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup plain flour, sifted
1 tspn baking powder
1 cupbground almonds
1/2 cup marmalade


1. Preheat the oven to 180c. Grease an 8" springform tin and line with greaseproof paper.
2. Put the orange in a pan, cover with water and simmer for an hour until soft. Cut the orange in half, remove pips and puree in a food processor.
3. Beat the eggs and sugar until pale and doubled in size. Fold in the flour, baking powder, dal ones and orange puree. Pour into the tin and bake for one hour.
4. Melt the marmalade in a pan then pass through a sieve so you are justbleft with the juice. Spread it over the stillbwarm cake. Leave to cool then sift icing sugar over the cake.