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Raisie Bay

cake

My Sunday Photo – 5th February 2017

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Valentines Cake with hearts and flowers

Boo has been pestering me for her to make a cake for a couple of weeks now. She wanted to make it all by herself with no help. Then I was sent a bunch of cake decorations and there was just no holding back Boo. So 9 am yesterday morning she got baking!

Apart from reaching a few things from the cupboard for her and leveling off the cake (Which involves a large knife) I did nothing, she did it all herself and we have the video to prove it!

So here it is, in pride of place for my Sunday photo this week. A gorgeous moist chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream and lots of romantic decorations. All Boo’s work, what a clever girl!

Boo proudly showing off the cake she made by herself
I guess I’d better get her application in for Junior Bake Off!

Photalife

Sunday Snap

Toe Nail Dusted Sweet Cakes recipe

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You asked – I made them…enjoy!

This is a recipe from the Hoxton Street Monster Supplies Cookbook which I am giving away three copies of in my prize draw which ends on 29th November..see widget below for entry.

I asked what my readers would like to me to make from the book and had an overwhelming response for Toe Nail Dusted Sweet Cakes, so here they are.

First though, make sure you have a jar of Truly Disgusting Toe Nail Crumbs in a jar on your kitchen shelf like I do.

Toenail-Dusted Sweet Cakes



“In the past, nose-to-tail -end hunters would source and dismember whole humans – and Toenail Cakes were a great way to use up every last scrap. A full set of fungus-infested toenails was considered a real treat and the original recipe introduced them to the dessert menu. Most tribes now buy pre-packaged joints and cuts, so this updated recipe is for those who don’t have easy access to truly disgusting toenails.”


Ingredients:

  • 125g unsalted soft butter
  • 125g caster sugar
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 250g self-raising flour, sifted
  • pinch of salt
  • 4 tbs milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
coating

  • 400g icing sugar
  • 100g cocoa powder
  • 150-175 ml boiling water
  • 200g desiccated coconut

Method:

Grease an 18 x 25cm cake tin and line with nonstick baking paper
Beat together the butter and caster sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy
Gradually incorporate the eggs, adding a little flour to prevent the mixture from curdling
Add the flour and salt and fold in with the milk and vanilla extract.
Turn into prepared tin and level the surface.
Bake in a preheated over for 25-30 minutes until risen and firm to the touch.
Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out to cool further
Sift the icing sugar and the cocoa powder into a bowl.
Make a well in the centre and beat in enough fo the boiling water to form a smooth icing with pouring consistancy.
Dip the top of each cake into the icing and then coat with the coconut.
Leave to set.
The question can be found in the Rafflecopter Gadget and you can answer in the comments. If you answer in the comments you do not have to fill in the gadget but it will give you more entries into the competion.
Rules: 
UK only, sorry
Please make sure you leave me your e-mail for contacting the winners
Winners will be chosen at random
The rafflecopter gadget will appear on other posts but you only need to fill it in once
No prize alternative will be offered
Prizes will be sent out by Hoxton Street Monster Supplies
Raisiebay will not be responsible for unreceived prizes
Prizes must be claimed within 28 days after the close of the competition.
Competition will close on November 29th 2016
All entries will be checked

a Rafflecopter giveaway

My Botanical Toffee Apple and Pecan Cake – GBBO week 6

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So it’s week six in the Bake Off Tent and the contestants are faced with a Botanical week. When I was thinking of what I could bake that fitted in with the theme botanical I thought, well, it could be anything really, so long as it contains something that grows.

The three components of this weeks challenges were: Citrus Meringue Pie for the signature challenge, Fougasse for the technical challenge and Floral Cake for the Show Stopper.

I so wanted to make a meringue pie just to show off how well, and peaky, I can make meringue. Unfortunately on baking day I was faced with the nightmare of ‘not enough eggs!’ arrgh!

I didn’t want to make Fougasse because of all the eurrgh! comments from my family members. Shame really because I quite like it and I’ve never made it before so quite a challenge.

The Showstopper was a Floral Cake. I’ve made quite  a few of these and really didn’t feel like I was in a floral mood, whatever a floral mood feels like.

The contestants didn’t do too badly this week, we had some flat meringues, undercooked Fugasse and show stoppers that I wouldn’t drool over. Over all it was Tom who won Star Baker and we said goodbye to Rav.

So what do I do for this weeks challenge? I decided that a botanical Cake would suffice, or is that cheating?

Toffee Apple and Pecan Cake.

toffee apple pecan cake
Pin Me for Later please!

Looks scrummy doesn’t it? It really was delicious but I had a little trouble with the filling.
I found the recipe in my BBC Good Food Magazine and just knew I had to make it. You can find the recipe online here. www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/toffee-apple-pecan-cake

The filling I found a bit too runny, it dribbled out of the cake. Which was a shame because it was nice. I didn’t put the filling on while the cake was warm, so I know that was not the problem. If I made it again, and I probably will, I would change the recipe for the filling to this:

25g Butter
100g icing sugar
1 tbs of carnation caramel.

That should make it a little thicker while still having the caramel flavour.
Here is a photo showing my dribbled filling.

toffee apple pecan cake with dribbled filling

Just to try and keep to the Great British Bake Off theme I did make a flower on the top of the cake with my apple slices and pecans.

toffee apple pecan cake without topping

You can just about see it I hope. Of course it looked completely different once I dribbled over the lovely caramel topping.

toffee apple pecan cake
I wanted to take a nice photo of a slice of the cake, maybe dressed up a bit with some flowers and my pretty flower tea cup. I had it all planned out. What I didn’t plan was that my family couldn’t wait to get stuck in and I was soon left with nothing but a few crumbs!
I guess it goes to show how tasty the cake was though, it even smelled delicious.
Mummy Mishaps

My Easy Lemon Drizzle Cake

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I love Lemon Drizzle Cake, it’s definitely one of my favourite treats. This recipe is really easy because it’s an all-in-one cake, which means you just put everything in a bowl and mix it up then bake. The drizzle is really simple too and so is the icing, although you may leave this off if you wish.

I would give just one tip though, don’t do as I did an fall asleep while your cake is baking! I didn’t burn it but I would have put a piece of grease proof paper on the top for the last ten minutes to prevent it from browning as much.

Ingredients:

200g soft butter
250g caster sugar
3 eggs
250g self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
100ml milk at room temperature.
For the drizzle:
lemon juice from 2 lemons, leaving about 1 tsp for icing
2 tbs golden syrup
For the icing:
1 tsp lemon juice 
icing sugar


Method:

pre-heat oven to  180C/gas mark 4
grease and line a 1lb loaf tin or 20cm cake tin
Put all the cake ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix with an electric food mixer or a wooden spoon until the batter is completely smooth.
Pour batter into cake/loaf tin and bake in middle of the oven for about 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. You may wish to  cover the cake with greaseproof paper for last 10 minutes.
Just before cake has finished cooking put the lemon juice (reserving a tsp for icing) into a pan with the golden syrup and warm gently.
When you take the  cake out of the oven, prick it all over with a skewer then pour over the syrup mixture before taking it out of the tin.
When the cake has cooled remove it from tin and cover it with a drizzle of icing made with the lemon juice and as much icing sugar as it takes to make a runny icing.
Enjoy!

Marilyn's Treats Thursday Favorite Things Feature

Healthier Carrot Cake – recipe

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I know a lot of people think of carrot cake as being healthy…well, it contains carrots! But that’s just like saying that wine is good for you because it’s made from grapes! I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but it’s just not true.

My usual carrot cake recipe contains 115ml of vegetable oil, and 115g of sugar. I figured there had to be a healthier recipe.

Today I think I cracked it. It wasn’t exactly the best looking carrot cake I’ve made, but it was tasty. I’d even go as far as to say I prefer it to my regular recipe!

I’m not saying that this recipe is calorie free, but the ingredients work out better for you. It also contains carrots, and we all know how wonderful they are 😉

Healthier Carrot Cake

Ingredients:

2 tbs melted coconut oil
250g ground almonds
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp bicarbonate soda
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3 eggs
3 tbs golden syrup
3 medium carrots, grated
50g raisins
50g chopped walnuts

Filling:

200g full-fat cream cheese
100g greek yoghurt
50g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
If you want to make the cake healthier you could bake it as a tray bake and omit the filling.

Method:

  1. grease and line two 23cm cake tins (or one 20 x 40cm baking tin if you are making a traybake.)
  2. combine the ground almonds with the salt, soda, cinnamon and nutmeg
  3. in another bowl beat the eggs then add the golden syrup and coconut oil and mix well
  4. add the carrots, raisins and chopped walnuts to the egg mixture
  5. mix the egg mixture into the dry ingredients
  6. pour into the cake tins and spread out evenly
  7. bake in oven, pre-heated to 180C/gas mark 6, for 30 minutes
  8. leave to cool while you make filling
  9. mix together all the ingredients for the filling until smooth and creamy, place in fridge until cake is cooled.
  10. fill the cakes with 2 thirds of the filling mix and then sandwich them together
  11. use final third of filling to spread on top of the cake and decorate with walnuts if you wish.
cake mix ready for oven
cooling cakes
Carrot Cake
It’s very rustic looking, but it tastes amazing!