The best frosting I’ve made so far.

I am not a big frosting or icing person. If you have read through this blog before, you’ll notice that most of my cakes go without it, because I think that it takes away from the flavour of the cake. Frostings are just too sweet for me, but when it comes to making sugar cookies for Christmas, I have to use it!

The trouble I’ve found is that most buttercream frostings I’ve made are too soft. I can never get them stiff enough without adding lots and lots of icing sugar, thus making them too sweet and inedible. Also, I like my white frosting to be white, not this off-white, buttery yellow colour that doesn’t take food colouring very well.

Happily, I came across a recipe in a gingerbread house kit that I bought. It’s terribly simple and super easy to make, and I will use it from now on whenever I need to make frosting.

The Recipe

1 egg white

A box of icing sugar

Method

1. Whip the egg white until soft peaks form.

2. Add icing sugar, a little bit at a time, until desired consistency is reached. The icing will harden when left to dry, and will also get shiny.

3. That’s it!

My Alterations

When I first used this recipe to make icing for our gingerbread house adventure, I made it very thick. Probably a bit too thick, because it started hardening while still inside the piping bags! Oops. I learned my lesson, though, because when I made it for my Christmas sugar cookies, I made it much softer and it was easier to spread. The icing still hardened as it dried, but it took a lot longer.

The Result

This icing is very easy to make and use. I added lots of different colours to it for my kids to decorate their cookies, and it worked very well. Even though the icing was watered down a bit because of the colouring, it still dried after a few hours so I could wrap them up.

The Verdict

This recipe will be a staple in my baking arsenal. It’s easy to remember, too, which is such a bonus. I like the sort of recipes where you can adjust them to your needs so easily.

The Rating

5/5, definitely. See how pretty my cookies looked?

Cookie-cutter Cookies: some Christmas baking!

I got this recipe from a friend; thanks, Cab!

The Recipe

1 cup softened butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp baking powder

3 cups flour

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400F/200C.

2. Cream butter and sugar.

3. Beat in egg and vanilla.

4. Add baking powder and flour, one cup at a time. Mix well.

5. Do not chill. Roll out to 1/8″ thick and cut out.

6. Bake for 6-8 minutes, or until brown around the edges.

My Alterations

This was a new recipe for me, and since it was so simple anyway, I followed it pretty much exactly. The fact that I didn’t have to chill the dough made me very excited to try it!

Oh, one alteration I did make was to add some food colouring to the dough for my kids. I broke the dough into fourths, and coloured one part red and one part green. That changed the consistency of the dough a bit, but the kids enjoyed themselves. My daughter still has red food colouring on her hands, though, which looks a bit gruesome!

The Result

I love this recipe so much. It’s easy to throw together, and the dough rolls out beautifully. It isn’t sticky, which is a problem I have with other sugar cookie recipes, and I didn’t have to add any extra flour at all. I rolled the dough out on large chopping boards without having to add any extra flour to the board, either.

The cookies kept their shape when baking and weren’t brittle. My kids didn’t break any of them when decorating; a definite point in their favour! They have a great taste, as well.

The Verdict

I love this recipe! I don’t normally like baking cookies, because even though the end product is delicious, it takes a really long time to bake all the dough. This was so much fun, though! The dough was so easy to work with, and I think that made all the difference.

I baked and decorated several cookies to give as gifts to our family friends, and I’ve already received feedback about how good they taste. The cookies are soft, but not too chewy, and don’t just taste sugary. I can’t recommend this recipe enough!

The Rating

Definitely, definitely 5/5. I’m baking some more cookies right now, actually!

Day 20: Peach Upside-Down Cake

So it turns out that my camera has a Food setting, for taking closeups of food. Cake. Same diff. The colours turn out much more natural, and I’ve been struggling with that one recently, because natural light in Jolly Olde England is hard to come by. The pictures I took of this cake glisten. Not in a bad way, I think, but in an “Oooh that looks tasty!” sort of way. So I’m happy!

The peaches are very shiny in this cake, but that just makes it prettier to look at and more fun to eat. Recipe from Allrecipes. Some more and again.

The Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 (29 ounce) can peach halves, drained
• 1/4 cup flaked coconut
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

Pour butter into a 9-in. round baking pan; sprinkle with brown sugar. Drain peaches, reserving 6 tablespoons of syrup. Arrange peach halves, cut side down, in a single layer over the sugar. Sprinkle coconut around peaches; set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs until thick and lemon-colored; gradually beat in sugar. Add extract and reserved syrup. Combine flour, baking powder and salt; add to egg mixture and mix well. Pour over peaches. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes; invert cake onto a serving plate. Serve warm.

My Alterations

I ran out of butter, so I think I used more like 1/4 cup. I basically just whacked my tub of butter in the microwave, and melted whatever was left in there. I didn’t measure it. I also used less brown suger — 1/4 cup — because that seemed like WAAAY too much sugar for one small cake.

I didn’t use peach halves, but peach slices. As you can see.

I was a bit wary of using almond flavouring instead of vanilla (mostly because I don’t much like the taste of it) and thought that peaches + coconut + almond = weirdness. But I did it anyway.

The Result

The cake itself isn’t anything special, really. It’s just a normal yellow cake with some fancy stuff on the top. But that fancy stuff — yummo! The flavour combination that worried me was actually fine. My husband is a bit fan of almond stuff (marzipan in particular) so he really enjoyed it.

Keep a close eye on it when baking, though. All the juices and caramelized sugar on the bottom of the cake make it difficult to tell when the cake is actually done. The skewer test isn’t always accurate.

The Verdict

Not bad! I was happy with the result, and that it was so easy to put together. This cake would look great on a buffet table or as a dessert for your next dinner party. I’ll definitely keep this recipe to hand for future use.

The Rating

5/5

Just because I’m not keen on almond flavouring shouldn’t detract from this cake’s rating. Pretty, easy, tasty. That says it all!

Day 16: Banana Cake

Recipe was emailed to me from Megan at My Baking Adventures. She has some great ideas and recipes over there; go check it out!

I love that this recipe doesn’t require eggs. Sometimes I run out of certain perishables, and if I’ve had the presence of mind to freeze my browning bananas, I could use a recipe like this to satisfy a sweet tooth or give to a friend or something. Easy.

The Recipe

2 c. all purpose flour
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¼ cup chopped pecans
1 ¾ cups mashed bananas
¼ cup honey
¼ vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 6 cup bundt pan, 8” square cake pan,
or large loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt
and pecans. In a medium bowl, combine bananas, honey and vegetable oil.
Blend banana mixture into flour mixture just until moistened.

Pour batter into pan of your choice and bake approximately 30- 35
minutes or until tester comes clean.

(I always used a square pan and that’s how long it took. But obviously,
if you use a different pan it may take longer.)

My Alterations

I was about 1/2 cup short of bananas. I had small ones that were turning brown, so I wanted to use them up anyway, even though the cake called for more. I also didn’t quite have enough honey, and no pecans. Walnuts, yes. Pecans, no.

The Results

I think it’s very difficult to mess up this recipe. Even though I ran low on a few ingredients, the cake rose beautifully and tasted great. I like bananas and nuts together in cakes or breads, so that’s always a good combination. It’s an easy recipe, too, so I’m happy with it.

The Verdict

Delicious! This is a great cake. I think the brown sugar gives it an amazing depth of flavour. Parts of the cake tasted slightly caramelized and the honey was a nice touch, too. It rose wonderfully, and it was a very dense bready cake.

I also like that the recipe makes a rather small cake. This was probably because I didn’t have to feel as bad when 3/4 of the cake disappeared in one evening….

The Rating

5/5

Definitely a keeper. Easy to make, even easier to eat!

Day 14: Coconut Cherry Cake

This recipe was suggested by a friend of mine; thanks, Clio! It is an extremely simple recipe with great results.

The Recipe

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup coconut

1 cup milk

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

chopped cherries (about 100g, halved)

vanilla (1-2 tsp)

Mix dry ingredients together. Add milk and vanilla. Do not overmix. Bake in a greased and lined loaf tin for approsximately one hour at 180 degrees (one and a quarter hours at gas mark 4).

The cherries have an unfortunate tendency to sink to the bottom, so I mix half of them into the loaf mix and sprinkle the rest on top, ensuring an even spread throughout the loaf.

My Alterations

This is a simple recipe, so I stuck to it pretty much exactly. The only difference is the cherries; I bought a tin of cherries instead of buying fresh ones, because I didn’t know when I would get around to baking the cake.

The Results

This cake-slash-loaf turned out really good. I actually used greaseproof paper as stated in the recipe, and it made it very easy to turn the cake out of the pan.

The Verdict

This cake tasted amazing. The cherries and coconut compliment each other perfectly, and the dense chewy texture was perfect for its flavour. This cake disappeared VERY quickly, thanks to my husband….!

The Rating

5/5

This is such a delicious cake! Easy recipe, simple ingredients, tasty end result. Perfection!

Day 8: Victoria Sponge Cake

This recipe is very similar to the Perfect Fairy Cake recipe, but this time I actually took the time to weigh each ingredient, and lemme tell ya, that made all the difference! I know; who knew, right? The recipe comes from the back of my bag of caster sugar, Whitworths brand.

The Recipe

INGREDIENTS

175g Butter, Softened

175g Whitworths Caster Sugar

3 Eggs, Beaten

Vanilla Essence

175g Self Raising Flour

150ml Double Cream, Whipped

45ml (3 tbsp) Jam

Whitworths Caster Sugar to decorate

METHOD

1. Grease and line 2 x 20cm (8″) round sandwich tins.

2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, followed by a few drops of vanilla essence.

3. Fold in the flour. Divide the mixture between the prepared cake tins, smooth the top and bake in a preheated oven 190C/380F/Gas Mark 5 for 20 minutes until golden, well risen and firm to the touch. Leave to cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then turn out on to a wire rack.

4. When cooled, sandwich the cakes together with the whipped cream and jam. Dredge the top with Whitworths Caster Sugar to decorate.

My Alterations

I stuck as closely to this recipe as possible, in light of my dismal failure with the fairy cakes. The only real changes were that I didn’t bother to whip the cream (too lazy) and I used my sifter to sprinkle icing sugar on the top of the cake, not caster sugar (finely granulated sugar). Who sprinkles caster sugar on a cake to decorate it, I ask you? That would look weird.

The Results

This is a very simple, pleasing cake. It is a classic English cake (the name of it didn’t give that one away or anything!), and rightly so. This recipe worked fine, and my husband couldn’t keep his mitts off of it.

The cake itself is rather small and light-weight, so it’s not going to be a substantial dessert. It works well as part of a buffet spread or alongside some ice cream or something. This is the kind of cake that everybody likes, but it doesn’t have much oomph or pizazz.

The Verdict

Easy to whip up, pleasant taste and texture, classic recipe. This is definitely a keeper.

The Rating

4/5

A very dependable cake that will please the crowds. Ours didn’t last long!

Day 3: Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

I use whole wheat flour quite regularly in baking; this recipe comes from a very informative booklet produced by my church called “Cooking with Wheat.” My supply of whole wheat flour was diminishing, so I decided to finish off what I had with this recipe. There were many other desserts made with whole wheat flour, so I’m sure I’ll come back to this booklet again.

I have to admit, however, that the idea of mayonnaise in cake sort of grossed me out. Mayonnaise is tangy! Chocolate cake shouldn’t be tangy! Ewww! I put my reservations aside, however, because the mayonnaise seems to take the place of egg and butter/oil in the recipe, so the cake should work. In theory.

The Recipe

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup sugar

½ tsp salt

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp vanilla

4 Tbs cocoa

1 cup warm water

1 cup mayonnaise

Put all ingredients in bowl; mix thoroughly; put into a greased and floured tin. Bake at 350F/180C/Gas 4 for 30 minutes or until springs back when touched. When cool, top with chocolate butter icing.

My Alterations

I stuck to the recipe pretty closely. It was incredibly easy – dump in bowl, mix, bake. Those are the best kinds of recipes!

The only difference was my use of flours. I ran out of regular whole wheat flour, and ended up using wholegrain spelt flour. It has a different taste and texture to whole wheat flours, and it did make a difference in the cake.

As shown on the flour packaging:

Ancient relative of modern wheat, spelt grain, triticum speltum, was widely grown by the Romans. This 100% wholegrain flour has complex flavours and bakes a delicious loaf.

The Results

I was worried that the mayonnaise would give the cake a tangy after-taste, but I couldn’t taste anything out of the ordinary. In fact, the cake turned out very light and flavourful. The spelt flour was too bitty, making the cake itself taste a bit grainy and with a slight wheaty, nutty taste. I would expect that from a cake made with any whole wheat flour, but I would have preferred a finer grain flour than what I used.

The Verdict

This is definitely a good cake. It’s easy to make, and chances are you’ll have all the ingredients in your house without having to make a special trip to get anything. On those days when you want cake or need to take cake to a function and suddenly ran out of eggs, this is a perfect substitute.

I would try it with a finer whole wheat flour, to see if that improves the texture. If you aren’t a big whole wheat flour fan, using half wheat and half white flour would work just as well.

The Rating

4/5

Easy to bake, great flavour and texture. Experiment with different flours.

Day 1: Carrot Cake

Recipe from Deseret Recipes cookbook. Most of the recipes in this cookbook are pretty bland, but they are also incredibly simple and easy to add to or change around. Recipe is reproduced as it appears in the book.

The Recipe

1. Beat until light and lemon colored……….4 eggs

2. Add…………………………………………………2C sugar, 1C oil

3. Sift together and add to egg mixture……2C flour, 3 tsp cinnamon, 2 tsp soda, 1 tsp salt

4. Add…………………………………………………3C grated carrots, 1C chopped nuts (optional)

5. Bake in two 9-inch layer pans at 350F (175C) for 30 minutes.

My Alterations

I actually made this cake twice in one week. The first time, I was in a terrible rush and needed it for a party at my regular playgroup. I didn’t feel like digging out my sifter, so I just dumped the dry ingredients in the bowl and hoped for the best. I also had run out of white flour at that point, so I used some fine whole wheat flour that I had in the back of the cupboard. I didn’t know if anyone at playgroup had a nut allergy, so I used dessicated coconut instead. I was also in the mood to be fancy, so I used my tube pan instead of the 9-inch layer pans that the recipe called for. The cake turned out great (Even after it broke when I took it out of the pan while it was still hot. Sigh.), so I decided to use the rest of my carrots to bake another cake for my family and this blog a few days later.

The second cake was different in a few ways. I had white flour to use this time, so I used that instead of the wheat flour. I didn’t have as many carrots, so it wasn’t the full 3 cups called for in the recipe. I didn’t mind so much, though, because I HATE grating, and I was using the super-fine grater, so it took forever to grate the little suckers. I only had about 1/2 cup of coconut left, so I dumped in a small package of chopped nuts to the recipe along with the coconut. It was about 1/2 cup’s worth as well, so the quantities evened out even though the ingredients weren’t quite right. I used my tube pan again, because that pan turns simple cakes into something really pretty and special without any extra work on my part.

Because the cake was baked in one large tube pan rather than two smaller round cake pans, the baking time was increased to 45 minutes, with me checking on it every few minutes thereafter to make sure it was done. Be careful with this cake, because the cinnamon makes the cake look browner than it really is.

The Results

The first cake turned out perfect. I’m a fan of coconut in cakes, and according to a friend of mine who ate some, the cake had a gingery taste to it. I’m not sure why, since there was no ginger in it at all, but perhaps the combination of carrot, cinnamon and coconut make a ginger taste. I only ate one piece, but it definitely had a pleasant spicy taste, ginger or not. It was very moist and spongy.

The second cake was also very tasty, but with fewer carrots, it didn’t have that distinctive carrot cake taste. This cake definitely needs the minimum 3 cups of carrots, and I am willing to bet it would work just fine with up to 4 cups of grated carrot. The chopped nuts gave an interesting texture, but my husband definitely likes nutty cakes more than me. I like nutty banana bread, but that’s about it. Because of the smaller amount of carrot and coconut, this version of the cake was overpoweringly nutty. Still a great flavour and texture, but I personally preferred the first cake.

I didn’t notice a huge difference in the flours I used. The wheat flour was labeled as “super fine” and “perfect for cakes”, and it was quite as soft and fine as the white flour. If there was a difference in taste, it was minimal.

The Verdict

This is a very easy, versatile cake. It has a great taste, is very moist and spongy, and can stand alone without any frosting. If you don’t have the exact ingredients in your cupboard, you can easily substitute for others without compromising flavour.

I don’t know how long the cake lasts; the first cake went fast at playgroup (the highest praise a cake can get!) and the second cake died an early death. I made the mistake of storing it in the oven on a plate with a knife alongside it, and when I went to make dinner that night, I preheated the oven. By the time I discovered the cake, it was thoroughly charred and the knife handle was completely melted. Super chef, I am not!

I will be saving this cake for special occasions. The effort involved in grating the carrots is more than I’m willing to put into a regular, everyday cake, but that’s just because I hate grating. If I had a fancy gadget that grated stuff for me, I would probably change my mind.

The Rating

5/5

All in all, this is a fabulous cake. Definitely worth five stars.