Lemon and Strawberry Stripe Cake

Work's been pretty hectic recently - as an accountant, there are times of the year when the workload gets a bit crazy! Thankfully, however, that time has just about passed, and to celebrate I really wanted to try out a new type of cake. This was inspired by a striped cake I saw in a Tesco magazine (their recipes are really good!) - I adapted the flavours of the cake, and the buttercream is my own creation, but I think the overall look is pretty :)
The stripe effect is made by making sponges in trays, so they are akin to Swiss rolls. I flavoured one with lemon zest, and the other, I tried to give it a strawberry kick with some strawberry conserve. The strawberry flavour was pretty delicate though, so next time, I might try adding pureed strawberries instead.
I made the buttercream ruffles using a tip similar to the Wilton 406:

The cake isn't as tricky to make as it looks, so give it a go!

Makes one 20cm cake

Ingredients:

For the lemon sponge:

• 130g (1 cup) plain flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• Finely grated zest of 2 lemons
• 4 eggs
• 35g (2 tbsp) butter, melted
• 85g (2/3 cup) caster sugar + 1 tbsp for sprinkling

For the lemon syrup:

• Juice of 2 lemons
• 75g (3/4 cup) icing sugar

For the strawberry sponge:

• 130g (1 cup) plain flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• Finely grated zest of 2 lemons
• 4 eggs
• 35g butter (2 tbsp), melted
• Pink food colouring (I used a concentrated gel)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp good quality strawberry conserve
• 85g (2/3 cup) caster sugar + 1 tbsp for sprinkling

For the strawberry topping:

• 2 tbsp good quality strawberry jam

For the lemon buttercream:

• 300g (1 & 1/4 cups) butter, very soft
• 600g (6 cups) icing sugar, sifted
• 2-3 tbsp lemon juice
• Pink food colouring

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c (160c fan)/355f/gas mark 4. Grease the base of a 23 x 33cm swiss roll tin/baking tray, and line with baking parchment.

2. Make the lemon sponge by pouring the eggs, lemon zest and sugar into a mixing bowl. Whisk for around 5 minutes (I used a stand mixer but an electric hand whisk would work fine) until the mixture has tripled in volume, and become very pale.

3. Sift over the plain flour and baking powder, and pour the melted butter around the edge of the mixture. Gently fold in, being careful to knock as little of the air out of the mixture as possible.

4. Pour into the prepared baking tray, and tilt the pan to evenly spread the mixture across the tray. Bake for around 10 minutes, until golden on top and springy to the touch.

5. Halfway through the cooking time, prepare the lemon syrup by pouring the lemon juice and icing sugar into a small pan. Place on a low heat and bring to a simmer.

6. Simmer for 2-3 minutes until the icing sugar is clear and the mixture is syrupy.

7. Once the sponge has baked, take it out of the oven, and use a pastry brush to brush over the lemon syrup. Place a sheet of baking parchment on your work surface, and then sprinkle over 1 tbsp of caster sugar.

8. Turn the sponge out onto the sugared baking parchment, and gently peel off the parchment stuck to the base of the sponge. From a short-end, roll the sponge (with the greaseproof paper) to a tight swiss roll, and leave to cool fully.

9. Repeat the same steps for the strawberry sponge, except instead of lemon zest in the sponge, add vanilla extract, strawberry conserve and pink food colouring to the eggs and sugar, and then whisk this mixture until tripled in volume.

10. Whilst the strawberry sponge is baking, make the topping by gently heating the strawberry conserve with 3 tbsp water, stirring regularly. Bring to a simmer and cook for 2-3 minutes.

11. Once out of the oven, spread over the strawberry syrup, then turn out onto sugared baking parchment, and roll as previously.

12. Whilst the cakes cool, make the buttercream by beating the butter, icing sugar, and lemon juice together until well combined, light and fluffy. I used the whisk attachment on my stand mixer and ended up with a fluffy soft buttercream that worked really well.

13. Divide the buttercream evenly into two bowls. Add pink colouring to one half of the buttercream and beat in.

14. Carefully unroll both sponges. Cut in half lengthways.

15. Take one of the lemon sponge halves. Spread with a thin layer of the pink lemon buttercream, then roll from a short side to make a swiss roll.

16. Take one of the strawberry halves, and spread with another thin layer of the pink buttercream. Wrap this around the rolled lemon sponge (effectively continuing the spiral).

17. Repeat with the remaining lemon and strawberry halves.

18. Cover the sides and top of the cake gently with a thin layer of the white buttercream. This acts as a crumb coat and should help stop crumbs from escaping into the outside buttercream layer.

19. Refrigerate for 15 minutes, or until the buttercream doesn't stick to your finger when pressed lightly.

20. Prepare a piping bag by adding a Wilton 406/ruffle tip to a piping bag, and trimming off the end. Fill with the pink buttercream.

21. Starting at the base of the cake, start piping ruffles by having the wide end of the nozzle pointing downwards, and angling the piping nozzle - this is by no means something I'm expert in, but I angled my tip slightly downwards so that the bottom of the nozzle was about 30 degrees away - I'd recommend checking out youtube for videos on this bit :)

22. When you only have about a quarter of pink buttercream left, add half of the white buttercream and continue piping the ruffles around the cake - this will give you a slight ombre effect. Alternatively, you could use a new piping bag with a clean piping nozzle if you don't want this effect.

23. Continue piping up the sides of the cake, and then, starting from the centre on top of the cake, pipe concentric circles - again there are some really good youtube videos showing this really clearly.

24. Place in the fridge until the buttercream has set (10-15 minutes).

25. Enjoy!

Ice Cream Cones

The weather has been pretty glorious in the UK over the past week (apart from some rain today of course). I've made some pretty delicious ice creams previously (see my cookies & cream ice cream, salted caramel ice cream, and honeycomb and coffee meringue ice creams) but haven't ever tried to make the wafers to go with them.
A while back I purchased an ice cream cone maker to make Stroopwafels (see my recipe here) and thought I'd have a go at making some ice cream cones.

The trick to make the cones is to work very quickly as soon as they are off the pan - as they cool, they become really crisp!
I used an ice cream cone mould, which is the white cone-shaped instrument in the picture above. If you don't have one, you could fashion one out of a piece of card, and fill it with foil to keep its shape.
Alternatively, you could mould the waffle over the base of a glass or small bowl, and make cool looking ice cream cups - I'll have to give that a go next time I make them!

The recipe is really simple - the longest part is waiting for the waffle maker to heat up.

Oh, if you don't have a waffle maker, you could try using a hot frying pan (like you would cook pancakes) - I haven't tried this myself but I've seen others get good results doing this.

These are best eaten the day you make them.

Makes 5 big ice cream cones

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp butter, for greasing the hotplate
• 25g (2 tbsp) butter, melted
• 100g (3/4 cup + 2 tsp) plain flour
• 50g (1/4 cup) caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg white
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp milk

Method:

1. Plug your ice cream cone maker in and start to preheat it. Mine took around 10 minutes, so get this going first!

2. Pour all of the ingredients, except the 1 tsp butter, into a bowl, and whisk until smooth. Set aside for at least 5 minutes to rest.

3. Once the hotplate has finished preheating, add the teaspoon of the butter to the hotplate. Add 1&1/2 tbsp of the batter to the centre of the hotplate.

4. Close the lid and press down. Cook for 3 minutes - depending on your machine and the exact amount of batter this can vary. Open the lid - you want a nice golden colour. If the first wafer is very brown, decrease the time you cook the next one to 2 & 1/2 minutes. If the wafer is still pale, press the lid down again and cook for another 30 seconds.

5. Use a spatula to carefully remove the wafer from the hotplate. Working quickly, wrap the wafer around the ice cream cone mould (or glass base, or bowl, as mentioned above). Hold for a few seconds until it cools slightly. It will cool very quickly.

6. Once cool to the touch, remove from the mould. If you make the cones and end up with a hole in the bottom, place a bit of marshmallow in the bottom. This will stop ice cream leakage!

7. Repeat with the remaining cones.

8. Fill with your favourite ice cream.

9. Enjoy!

Anzac Biscuits

I had a baking craving last night and couldn't work out what to bake. I had a lot of bits and pieces in my cupboards and went on a recipe hunt. I also wanted the baked good to be something I could take with me on a very long run the next day (52km!). I decided on an Aussie (and New Zealand) classic - the Anzac biscuit. They remind me of a cross between an oaty biscuit and a flapjack, and are amazing as an on-the-go sugar hit when training, or to just have alongside a cup of tea.
From weighing the ingredients to cooling, these biscuits took less than an hour to make, so if you're a fan of oats, coconut and flapjacky goodness, you'll love these!
They'd also be a fun bake to have your children get involved with :)

These will keep in an airtight jar for up to a week, or they can be frozen.

Makes around 24 biscuits

Ingredients:

• 100g (1/3 cup + 1tbsp) margarine (or softened butter)
• 100g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
• 85g (1 cup) porridge oats
• 85g (3/4 cup + 2 tsp) desiccated coconut
• 100g (3/4 cup + 2tsp) plain flour
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• Pinch of salt

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180c (160c fan)/355f/gas mark 4. Grease two baking trays lightly.

2. Melt together the margarine and golden syrup in the microwave (or on the hob) until the mixture is liquid. Set aside to cool slightly (for around 5 minutes).

3. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the caster sugar, porridge oats, desiccated coconut, plain flour and salt.

4. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour over the margarine/syrup. Stir until you have a sticky mixture with no flour visible in the bowl.

5. Take heaped spoonfuls of the mixture (you could use your hands if you want to - make them golf ball sized) and place on the greased baking trays, making sure to leave about 2.5cm (1 inch) gaps between each ball. Press down on each biscuit lightly.

6. Bake for around 8 minutes until golden and lightly brown on the edges. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes. Gently transfer to a cooling rack to cool fully.

7. Enjoy!

Keto-Friendly Chocolate Cake

I baked this cake a little while ago for someone who was trying out a very low carbohydrate diet (also known as a keto diet). I couldn't bear the thought of him not having a birthday cake so devised the chocolate cake below. The end result was pretty satisfying - a cocoa-rich sponge - it's not too moist, but with the cream cheese frosting, it's a really nice mouthful. I added a whey protein powder to the frosting for extra gains, but this is optional. If you don't add the powder, the frosting will be looser but will still be usable. I topped the cake with a dark chocolate drip - this does add a little sugar but it does add an extra flavour dimension to the cake.
This cake is also gluten-free for the celiacs out there :)
Keep the cake in the fridge once it's finished - it'll keep for 2-3 days.

Makes one 20cm cake

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 120g (1 cup) ground almonds
• 100g (3/4 cup) chopped walnuts, plus 6 halves for decoration
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp stevia
• 5 eggs, separated
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the frosting:

1. 250g (1 & 1/8 cup) cream cheese
2. 15g (1/2 a scoop) cinnamon whey protein powder (optional)
3. 1 tbsp lemon juice
4. 1 tbsp cocoa powder

To finish:

1. 30g 72% dark chocolate
2. 20ml water
3. 1/4 tsp ground coffee

Method:

1. To make the cake, preheat the oven to 180c (160c fan)/355f/gas mark 4. Grease and line the base and sides of a 20cm cake tin.

2. Whisk the egg whites in a clean, grease-free bowl until they are very frothy and form peaks when the whisk is lifted out of the mix.

3. Whisk together the egg yolks with the stevia and vanilla for a few minutes until the yolks have lightened in colour and increased in volume.

4. Mix the ground almonds with the cocoa briefly, then add the egg yolk/stevia/vanilla mixture. Beat well to a paste. Add all but 1 tbsp of the chopped walnuts and fold in briefly.

5. Fold in the egg whites carefully, just until you can't see any specks of white.

6. Pour into the prepared cake tin, level, then bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the top feels springy and the sides of the cake are coming away from the sides of the tin. Remove from the oven, and leave for five minutes. Turn out onto a cooling tray to cool fully.

7. Make the frosting by beating together the cream cheese, protein powder (if using), lemon juice and cocoa powder, until smooth.

8. Once cool, smooth the frosting onto the tops and side of the cake and set aside whilst you make the chocolate topping.

9. Finely chop the dark chocolate and place in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat for 20-second bursts on full power, stirring well after each burst, until the chocolate has melted.

10. Meanwhile, heat together the water and coffee in a pan until it is simmering. Once the chocolate has melted, pour over the coffee mixture and whisk well. Set aside until it is at room temperature (if it firms up too much, place in the microwave for 10 seconds).

11. Pour two-thirds of the chocolate around the rim of the cake, gently smoothing over the sides to get a drip effect. Pour the remaining chocolate into a piping bag, and pipe the name/any writing you'd like on the top. Finish with the walnut halves, and sprinkle over the reserved chopped walnuts.

12. Place in the fridge for at least 20 minutes, until the chocolate has set.

13. Enjoy!