Orange and Pistachio Carrot Cake

Telling someone you'd like your coffee wet may lead to them thinking your deluded.  Or at least more deluded than they'd previously thought you were. But every day is a school day and now, one of my colleagues is fully versed up on the complexities of how to order coffee.  If he thought he was a hardcore caffeine addict, he has just met his match!

Most days, he'll appear in the office brandishing a Starbucks cup.  Not unusual to most people, but when you work in the back end of beyond (or at least it feels like it), seeing a Starbucks cup is like seeing an oasis in a desert.  Everyone wants to know where it came from and why they didn't get one too.  Being such a generous chap, he has offered in the past to collect me a coffee so long as I remember to give him my order the previous evening.  I always forget.

Top of the cake with my carrot 'blobs'

But today, when I showed him a picture of the carrot cake that I've made this week (he got to choose what I made), he kindly offered again and I felt it rude to say "I'll email my order later".  So I requested my usual which is a grande skinny almond latte - extra hot and wet.  Grande and skinny because I'm being good (and I now actually hate anything other than skimmed milk).  Almond because skimmed milk has no taste.  Extra hot because Starbucks is about six miles from the office.  And wet.  Because you get more in your cup.

Starbucks have this tendency to fill the cup with at least a third of foam.  Fine if you're ordering a cappuccino but I don't buy a latte for the foam.  I buy it because I want a decent milky coffee.  So you can order your latte wet which means it comes without any foam.  Or, if you want it really foamy, you order it dry.  Which means you get about two teaspoons of milk and a cup full of hot air.

In all honesty, I could've just asked for a latte with two sugars.  I feel a bit rotten now for being so hard to please when it comes to coffee.  At least I didn't' insist he drove to Costa (about six miles in the other direction).  And I hope the cake is a fair exchange for my complicated coffee order!

I was originally going to make a Hummingbird Bakery Carrot and Ginger cake (from Cake Days) but wasn't sure I'd get time to faff around with icing it nicely so I settled on making a traybake because you can just slap the icing on over the top.  Plus, it's easier to transport.  So I chose a recipe from the Great British Bake Off Cookbook to get the basic quantities, adapted it with some tweaks of my own and inspiration from the Hummingbird recipe and then used the Hummingbird's frosting on the top, just because I could.

Will update tomorrow with the feedback and a picture of it when it's been cut, but in the meantime, here's how I did it.

Recipe - fills a 20x25cm traybake tray (adapted from The Great British Bake Off 'How to Cook' and Hummingbird Bakery 'Cake Days')

• 225g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
• 0.5 tsp ginger
• 0.5 tsp all spice
• pinch of salt
• 100g soft dark brown sugar
• 100g caster sugar
• zest of half an orange
• 2 tsp orange blossom water or juice of half an orange
• 75g unsalted pistachios, chopped
• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 150ml sunflower oil
• 350g carrots, grated

For the topping

• 150g icing sugar, sifted
• 25g butter
• 150g full fat cream cheese
• 2 tsp orange blossom water or juice of half an orange
• zest of half an orange

1. Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan/gas 4.  Grease and baseline the baking tray.
2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl.  Add the sugar, zest, spices, salt and pistachioes eggs and carrots and mix well.
3. Pour into the tin and level the top.  Bake for 45 minutes or until it passes the skewer test.
4. Cool in the tin.  If serving on a plate, you can remove for icing, but I iced mine in the tin to make transporting it easier.
5. While the cake is cooling, mix the butter and icing sugar using an electric mixer on slow speed until it forms fine crumbs.  Add the orange blossom water or juice and the cream cheese and mix until light and fluffy.
6. If you want to decorate with piped carrots, remove two tablespoons of the frosting into two separate bowls (1 tbsp in each) and colour (gel colours work best as the icing is very soft).  Refrigerate before using to pipe.
7. Spread the rest of the frosting over the cold cake with a palette knife and make a swirly pattern. 
8. Decorate with pistachios and carrots (if desired).  Cut into 15 squares for serving.

Hummingbird Bakery Black and White Chocolate Cheesecake Bars

Cake envy.  It's not a good emotion.  And it's something I'm guilty of breeding in my office.  I'm sure those of you who bake have experienced this.  Once upon a time, I only used to bake for my work colleagues on high days and holidays.  But since starting this blog, baking for the office has become an 'easy win' way of ticking off one recipe a week (and meaning at least one day a week, I can eat a normal tea, rather than having to eat something new).

Since January, I've been seconded onto a project at one of our other sites.  I've made lots of new 'friends' at the new office because I am the bringer of cakes.  I have known informal meetings to be interrupted because someone has spotted an email on their Crackberry proclaiming there to be homemade cake on my desk.  And at times, I've used cake as an incentive to coerce my colleagues from my home site to attend meetings at the new site (if senior management are reading this, they'd've come anyway - and the sugar they consume makes them more productive!)

But now the cake envy has started.  My regular colleagues get emailed pictures of whatever goodies are on offer just to make them jealous.  My project manager has been bragging to an old colleague of mine who now works at another site about how much cake he's been plied with over the last few months (and there's not an ounce of fat on him - I dislike him very much for this!)  Said colleague is now not speaking to me.

Unusually today, a plan was in place to visit my home site and take the weekly bake with me.  I forwarded pictures of the cake, but when the meeting was cancelled, I got a short shrift from my colleagues saying the cake didn't look like it was anything special anyway.  I know that's just pure cake envy because they always taste good, even if they're not aesthetically pleasing.

For every friend I've kept through baking, I have a feeling I alienate those who aren't lucky recipients.  I post pictures of my baking on Facebook and every time, my stepdad hopefully comments that he'd like to get some next time I visit.  Invariably he's out of luck because it's been shared with someone else instead.

I get cake envy too now I idle away so much time on Twitter, but it's certainly broadening my cake eating horizons (and my bottom!)  I love looking at the fabulous baking other people tweet about.  There is such amazing baking talent in this country, I seriously don't know how supermarket cake survives.  I don't think I'd ever be envious of that.

Anyway, enough waffling and on to the bake.  Interestingly I baked this after watching the Baking Mad episode on tray bakes.  The recipe calls for the base to be mixed using a mixer, but the lovely Mr Lanlard says "...shouldn't be using mixers, shouldn't use too many pieces of equipment, if it's too sophisticated or elaborate, it's not a traybake any more..." so it was all mixed by hand.  This had the added bonus of not annoying the husband who hates my mixer nearly as much as he hates Manchester United.

I also had a bit of an issue with my local Waitrose.  For a tiny Waitrose Local (or whatever they call it) it has an excellent selection of food.  But they don't sell cocoa.  Do the people of my town not bake or something?  I can buy it in my local Tesco Express, but not in posh old Waitrose! (I'm not posh, it was just supposedly convenient)  I have complained about this so hopefully it will be rectified shortly.

Whilst re-reading the recipe, I realised I messed up and used baking powder rather than bicarb which meant my base was a little more puffy than it should've been but no less tasty.  In fact, I don't normally like bicarb in things because whilst I know it has a purpose, I can always seem to taste it and I find it sometimes spoils my enjoyment of the cake.

This may also be why the bits of crumbled dough on the top seemed to leak a little bit of butter grease across the top of the cheesecake but it tasted fine. I also think the direction to keep 1/4 of the dough to use in the topping is excessive.  I probably used only half of this

You need to make sure you bring it to room temperature before serving although it doesn't say this in the book.  I found it really hard to cut and was worried that the base would be all horrible and dry, but a couple of hours in a tin on my desk and it was all lovely and fudgy again.

Very popular with the natives who are big fans of brownies.  I'd probably bake again, but my favourite Hummingbird Brownie recipe is their Raspberry Cheesecake Brownie - you can find that recipe here.

Recipe: Makes 12-15 generous bars (adapted from Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days)


For the base

• 250g unsalted butter
• 420g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 380g plain flour
• 60g cocoa powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

For the topping

• 80g good quality white chocolate
• 300g full fat cream cheese (ie Philadelphia)
• 60g icing sugar, sifted
• 1 egg

1. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time and mix until well incorporated.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa, bicarb and salt.  Tip into the batter in two batches and fold in until well combined.  You may need your hands to bring this together as it's more like a firm dough than a batter.
3. Reserve about 1/5 of the dough for topping and put in a plastic bag and refrigerate.  Line a 23x30cm baking tray with parchment and press the remaining dough into the tray and allow it to set in the fridge for 20-30 minutes
4. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 170c/150c fan/325F/Gas 3.
5. Remove the base from the fridge and bake for 20-25 minutes.  Allow to cool completely in the tin before adding the topping but keep the oven on for cooking the finished cheesecake.
6. Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.  Beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth (don't over mix as it can split).  Add the egg and mix thoroughly, then stir in the melted chocolate.
7. Spread the mixture onto the cooled base, crumble over the reserved dough in large pieces.
8. Bake for about 25 minutes or until the cheesecake has set.  Cool completely then refrigerate for a few hours.  Cut into bars and bring to room temperature before serving.

Hummingbird Bakery Chocolate Cupcakes

So my little girl turns two tomorrow.  And as part of a few days of festivities, we spent an hour this afternoon baking the first of four sets of birthday cakes.  I know this sounds a bit excessive, but I'm trying to make her birthday a bit special.  We don't have a huge family and because I work full time and haven't been able to take her along to playgroups, I don't have a myriad of other mummies with offspring to invite over for a party.

Tomorrow, it's just me, her and the husband.  On Thursday I'll send some mini cupcakes to school with her for her classmates.  On Friday, my two neighbours are coming round for coffee with their children so we'll have cupcakes then and on Saturday, the 'rents are coming down so her official birthday cake will be made.

I must check myself here because earlier I had a bit of a rant on Facebook about people who buy excessive piles of presents for their two-year-olds.  And here I am making four lots of cakes for mine!

One of the reasons I've probably not made an effort to 'bond' with some of the other mothers is because I'm not really a woman's woman.  I have female friends, don't get me wrong.  And the ones I have are ace.  But I'm not a girly girl, I don't enjoy shopping and working in a male-dominated environment suits me down to the ground.  I felt like a social outcast in my post-natal group as although I wasn't the oldest mother, I was the oldest first time mother.  I was the only one who breastfed and I was the only one going back to work.  All of which immediately seemed to mark me out as a pariah.

One of the cakes...

And then we come on to some of the other mothers who've acquaintance I've made.  Like a fool, I let down my guard and added them as friends on Facebook (they've since been removed).  Some of them posted pictures of the piles of presents that their under-two offspring got for Christmas.  Seriously, it was obscene.  One had a travel cot packed full of presents for a one year old.  Now maybe they have a large and generous family - I don't know - but it just seemed wrong that so much should be lavished on a child who probably wouldn't appreciate it.

I passed comment on this by way of saying that the best thing Miss A had for Christmas was the huge cardboard box that all my Christmas shopping came in from Amazon.  We turned it into a car.  A bit later we pulled the flaps out and turned it into Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  She was heartbroken when my husband crushed it in front of her and stuck it in the recycling bin.  And yet she has piles of toys (comparatively small piles I might add) that she rarely touches.  She's far happier in the kitchen with me, demanding to crack eggs or rolling and cutting bits of spare dough.

In response to my comment, one mother posted that I shouldn't feel bad I was so poor, and that if I saved hard, I could make it up to her for Christmas.  She missed my point entirely.  Again, I don't know this particular woman's personal finances, but I wouldn't imagine she's that well off knowing what I do.  More young and naive.  I earn a decent salary thank you very much and I could, if I felt like it, buy my child an iPad (yes, this is what her child got for Christmas amongst about fifty other things).  But seriously?  A not-yet-two-year-old with its own iPad.  The world has gone mad.

And they call it Puppy Love

The best thing that happened to Miss A today (besides getting to crack three eggs) was when we popped to the shops and we discovered the Guide Dogs for the Blind collecting box that has recently appeared.  She spent a good ten minutes sat talking to the plastic dogs and petting them.  This is what children are supposed to do.  Not live in sterile worlds with only electronic devices for company.

And I'm glad for my child and her creative imagination.  Because when she wakes up tomorrow morning, I'm hoping that she will be chuffed that I've turned her chocolate cupcakes and bits of biscuit into a dachshund.  Now it takes a bit of imagination (and you need to know what a dachshund is!!) but Miss A does adore her dogs and particularly, Rolo our dachshund.  As it's just the three of us tomorrow, I didn't want a huge, elaborate cake but I wanted to do something that she'd love and could be involved in making.

I happened across the inspiration for this a while ago and it seemed perfect.  So with a few shaped bits of chocolate biscuit and some ganache-topped chocolate cupcakes from the original Hummingbird Bakery cookbook, we have ourselves a dachshund.

Last year's cake. It's a zebra, alright?!

Of course, I then made the fatal mistake of asking the husband if it looked like a dachshund.  He said something along the line of 'it's some chocolate cakes', crushing any imaginatory spirit that I had.  Okay, so the picture (below) is rubbish because of poor lighting and space in my kitchen but it looks vaguely dog like, doesn't it?

I should know better, after he decided that all the effort that went into last year's big cake created a cow.  It was supposed to be a zebra.

Anyway, after a lot of waffling, here's a tiny bit about the bake.  The book states that the Hummingbird Bakery uses a Devil's Food Cake mix for their cupcakes.  I don't know what constitutes the difference between Devil's Food Cake and regular chocolate cake but it has a high sugar and low butter and egg content.  This makes for a soft, sticky cake which personally I found too sweet.  I blogged before about my issue with Hummingbird Vanilla Cupcakes being sticky on the top and not being able to stack them.  I had the same problem with these.

Another problem I faced tonight was that for some reason, the wrappers started to peel from the edges of the cake.  I've had this before with the vanilla recipe too but I don't know why.  Last time I assumed it was the wrappers or the heat that caused it (it was in the summer) but this time, it's much cooler and I used different wrappers which have been fine with other recipes.  If anyone is still reading this far through and knows what I'm doing wrong, I'd appreciate the advice!

Chocolate dachshund made with Miss A's help

I topped these cakes with some chocolate ganache made with half chocolate, half cream, a knob of butter stirred in and a half teaspoon of vanilla essence.

If I'm honest, I won't bake these again.  I much prefer the chocolate cupcake recipe over at Joy of Baking.  Best ones ever and always get me compliments.


Chocolate cupcakes (recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery)

Ingredients

• 100g plain flour
• 20g cocoa powder
• 140g caster sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 40g soft unsalted butter
• 120ml whole milk
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/Gas 3. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases.
2. Put the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and butter in a large bowl and beat on a slow speed with an electric hand mixer until well combined and a sandy consistency.
3. Whisk the egg, milk and vanilla extract together in a jug and add half to the dry mixture.
4. Beat slowly to combine and then more quickly to beat out any lumps.
5. Add the remaining liquid mixture and beat slowly to combine. Do not overmix.
6. Transfer the mixture into the cake cases until 2/3 full and bake for 20-25 minutes in the preheated oven until they spring back to the touch. A skewer inserted should come out clean.
7. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack

Updated: Rhubarb and Almond Loaf

Here it is, Valentine's day.  And am I baking for my beloved? Am I heck!

My master plan was to do one of those Dine for a Tenner things (we're not posh enough to have a M&S out here in the sticks).  So all the hubby had to do was take plastic lids off of things, stick them in the oven and arrange them on a plate.

Unfortunately, my first mistake was to assume he wasn't even capable of making it to the shops to purchase said food.  I stocked up on Sunday.  Got home.  He got grumpy and then finally showed me the note in his iPhone reminding him to go out and forage for an M&S meal today (I'm still not quite sure what he would've done when he realised our closest branch is now in Bristol).  So he wanted nothing to do with unwrapping the food I got in Sainzlebobs.  He was happy enough to eat it and even happier to down the bottle of red by himself, but cooking it?  No way.

Pretty pink swirls in the batter

Anyhow, it meant that for once I got a vaguely decent meal without having to cook.  This of course then left me with the dilemma that I hadn't tried a new recipe today.  So my lucky lucky work colleagues are being treated again tomorrow with emergency cake, purely because of this now silly challenge I set myself.


I'd decided on either Melting Moments from the GBBO book (I adore Viennese Whirls and wanted to try the pretty red-tinged ones that Mary-Anne made) or the Hummingbird Bakery Rhubarb and Almond Loaf from Cake Days.  I offered my project manager the choice and he plumped for the rhubarb, citing that it will give him one of his five a day tomorrow.

And in an interesting spooky turn of events, I was twittering away with my good twitter chum @DickyBundock and it turned out that we were both making exactly the same cake today.  Small world!  And to make things seem even more spooky, out of all the recipes she could have chosen, our lovely twitter buddy @KateSelwood1 also picked a Hummingbird recipe today.  If you're on Twitter, give them both a follow.  They are both lovely tweeps - if a little uncontrollable at times ;o)xx

It's an interesting bake.  The compote is very runny.  Whether it's because of the type of rhubarb that I used or something, but I was expecting slightly firmer chunks.  It's also far paler than the rhubarb in the book (although I expect the picture has been photoshopped) so I have a feeling when I cut into it, it won't have the lovely pink marbled effect which will be a shame.

Ready to feed the hoardes

There was a lot of leftover compote as well.  Which isn't a problem as I love it on my porridge in the morning.  I even used more than the recipe said and still had loads left.  I gave a tiny taster to the child and now 'RooBAH' is Miss A's favourite fruit.  Or is it a vegetable?

Judging the cooking time was also hard because with the rhubarb swirled through the middle, trying to tell whether the skewer is damp from uncooked cake mix or just because it's hit the rhubarb motherlode proved difficult.  Even after an hour and fifteen minutes (20% more cooking time) it still had a soggy bottom.  As pretty as the swirled effect is, next time, I'd consider putting a small layer of just cake mix in the bottom of the tin before swirling the rhubarb through the rest in the hope that the bottom was a bit more stable.

The sponge tastes really great with the cinnamon and ginger giving it a lovely spicy note, but I have a feeling that this will detract from the taste of the ground almonds in the batter and the almonds sprinkled on the top.  Of course, this is the problem with large cakes.  You can't taste test them in advance if proffering them as a psuedo-gift to someone.

So I await my project manager's feedback.  I have my personal development review coming up next Monday so I will be interested to see if my baking skills have improved this past year.  Oh and whether I'm any good at what I'm paid to do too.  There's a fair bit riding on this cake so wish me luck!

Update: 15th Feb 2012 - well I was disappointed when I cut into the cake.  Nary a trace of pink, unlike the (probably over photoshopped) picture in the book.  Wondering if it's because the rhubarb is early season forced rhubarb?

I did read another blog about this loaf where the baker faced the same problem with the lack of pink inside. She suggested adding red food colouring to the rhubarb next time.  I don't think I'd go that far personally.  Would rather have a natural looking cake with pale colours than one that looks like it's dripping blood :)

It also wasn't tart enough for me so next time I'd reduce the sugar in the compote, but that's personal taste.

Saying that, my project manager said he really liked it.  I'm rubbish at taking compliments and blustered on about how I was unhappy with it and he said 'well I'm a man who just likes cake, I'm not fussy so what would I know?'  I think he's afraid that if he ever disses one of my cakes I won't ever bring another one in....

Recipe

2lb loaf tin, greased and dusted with flour

Ingredients:

for the stewed rhubarb

1. 5 long stalks of rhubarb, chopped into 2cm pieces
2. 70g sugar
3. 20g butter

• Place the rhubarb together with the sugar and butter in a large saucepan, add 50ml water and cook on a medium heat until the rhubarb is soft. Set aside and let cool. 

for the cake

• 190g butter, softened
• 140g plain flour
• 190g sugar
• 3 eggs at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 50g ground almonds
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 25ml milk
• 50g flaked almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C (150°C Fan) 325°F or Gas mark 4.
2. Put the butter and sugar in a large bowl and cream with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. 
3. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until well incorporated. Scrape down the sides after each addition to make sure everything is evenly mixed.
4. Sift the flour, baking powder, almonds, ginger and cinnamon together.
5. Add half of this mixture to the batter and mix well until combined.  Add half the milk and mix until well combined.  Repeat with the remaining ingredients.
6. Swirl 100g of the rhubarb through the batter.
7. Pour into the prepared tin.
8. Sprinkle with the flaked almonds and bake for about 50-60 minutes.
9. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out the cake on a wire rack and let cool completely.

Hummingbird Bakery Mojito Cupcakes

It's National Baking Week this week so on Sunday I decided to make some Mojito Cupcakes from the Hummingbird Bakery's (@hummingbbakery's) Cake Days book.  I've had mixed success with recipes from their original book - the vanilla cupcakes and raspberry chocolate brownie bar are to die for; other recipes such as the cheese and spinach muffins just didn't work for me.

Nevertheless, I intend to have a go at more recipes from Cake Days as so far, everything I've made from it has been more than passable.  I picked these in particular because mojitos are my cocktail of choice.  Not that I drink many as according to my mother, one sniff of a barmaid's apron and I'm anybodys...

Mojito cupcakes - replete with mint leaves

So why am I posting on Tuesday about something I baked Sunday?  Surely that's cheating??  Well I baked the cakes on Sunday, popped to the shops, came home, started stocking the fridge and my little assistant took it upon herself to tip a newly opened box of icing sugar all over my kitchen floor.  At the time, I was less than amused.

No icing sugar, no frosting.  I finished them off tonight (decorating them, not eating them!) hence why I'm using this as a sneaky Tuesday recipe.

These are mini cupcakes and now they're frosted, I totally understand why.  They are VERY sweet and I can feel my teeth rotting just looking at them.  The sponge on its own is beautifully fragrant with a hint of lime and mint and a crunchy sugar-rum topping.  But the frosting just doesn't work for me.  It is too sweet and I feel it should be sharper.  Even adding lime juice didn't seem to cut through the sweetness.  I'd welcome suggestions on how to make really sharp lemon or lime frosting as it's something I've never found a successful recipe for.  Answers on a tweet to @lilmssquirrel.

Makes 12 medium sized cupcakes or 20-30 mini cakes

For the sponge:

100ml White rum 
170g Caster sugar
40g Unsalted butter, softened
120g Plain flour
1/4 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Grated lime zest
1 tsp Grated lemon zest
1 tbsp Finely chopped mint
1 large egg
120ml Milk 
1/2 tsp Vanilla essence 

Preheat oven to 170deg C and line a muffin tin with cases 

In a saucepan bring the white rum and 30g of the sugar to the boil, reduce by half and set aside. 
Beat together the butter, flour, salt, baking powder, lime and lemon zest, mint and remaining sugar. Mix until you have a crumb like consistency. 
Mix together the egg milk and vanilla in a jug and gradually pour this into the dry mix mixing until you have a smooth batter. 

Spoon cake batter into the cases up to 2/3 full. Place in the oven and bake for 12-15 min's for mini cupcakes or 15 to 20 for bigger or until the cakes are a light golden brown and springy to the touch. 

While the cakes are still warm spoon the rum reduction over them (1/2 tsp for mini cakes 1tsp for bigger approx) Then leave to cool completely! 

While the cakes are cooling, make and drink a mojito! ... erm I mean make the frosting! 

For the frosting

80g Unsalted butter
250g Icing sugar
1/4 tsp lemon zest
1/4 tsp lime zest
4 tsp milk
4 tsp White rum

1tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp chopped mint or lime zest 

Using and electric whisk, beat together the butter, icing sugar, lemon and lime zest until combined in a sandy consistency. Stir together the milk and rum and pour this into the butter mixture while still beating, whisk until light and fluffy. 
Divide the frosting between the cakes. To finish, mix together the caster sugar with either 1 tsp of mint or lime zest and sprinkle over the top.