THE "BAD BOY" CHOCOLATE CAKE

Hello my lovely readers

This chocolate cake can only be referred to as the "bad boy" in my house. This beauty is just under 600kcal per slice! Normally I wouldn't put such a monstrosity on my blog but this is by far the nicest cake I have ever tasted! Plus it's from my new magazine and about the only thing I can actually make until I get the rest of my stuff!

I did change a few things in the recipe, so I will include my 2p worth in the end :) You don't have to listen to it though but I would love your comments about the cake! :)

Enjoy my dears and thanks for reading! Thanks, Tanya x

THE "BAD BOY" CHOCOLATE CAKE
- from Cake Decorating magazine, 1st issue

INGREDIENTS

 CAKE MIX:
- 225g unsalted butter
- 225g caster sugar
- 4 medium eggs
- 175g self-raising flour
- 50g cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp warm water, optional (if mixture is dry)

BUTTERCREAM ICING:
- 300g icing sugar
- 25g cocoa powder
- 175g butter, softened
- 2 tbsp milk, optional (if icing is a bit dry)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract

METHOD (CAKE MIX)

Preheat your oven to gas mark 4 / 180C / 350F

Cream together the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating them into the mixture. Sift half the flour and cocoa into the bowl and fold it in. Sift the rest of the flour and cocoa in well. Add water if the mixture is dry.

Pour the mixture into your greased cake tin and smooth it down with the back of a spoon. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes. Do the usual test to check if the cake is ready by putting a toothpick through the centre and seeing if it comes out clean or not. Leave the cake to cool on a wire rack while we make the icing.

METHOD (BUTTERCREAM ICING)

Sift the icing sugar and cocoa powder into a bowl and add the softened butter. Mix them together, then add the milk and vanilla extract. Mix all the ingredients together well until pale, soft and fluffy. If your icing is a bit too dry, then add some more milk.

Remember though that you can always add to the mixture but can't take out, so rather put in a splash of milk to begin with!

PUT THE ICING ON YOUR COOLED CAKE AND ENJOY!

FINAL SAY

 Ok so... As I said, I did change a few things slightly but nothing major.

Firstly, I added the cocoa powder into the buttercream icing to make it chocolate icing. This is why I mentioned the additional milk as it may make it a bit dry. If you keep adding a little milk each time, then it will go to good consistency. The recipe said water but I feel that water takes the taste away, milk, in my opinion, keeps it's creaminess.

Secondly, the time it took in the oven. The recipe was originally for 2 cakes which take 15-20 minutes in the oven. I am a terrible baker clearly as I don't own 2 cake tins that are the same size so I just made one. This obviously needs more time in the oven so it took me 25 minutes in a fan-assisted oven. So it may take longer in a normal oven. If you do want to do 2 cakes, then you will just make the same amount of icing and just put some in between the 2 cakes before placing one on top of each other!

And lastly, serve at room temperature with some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream on the side and enjoy!!

Nutritional info: 1/10th slice: 597 kcal - 35.2g fat - 258.4mg sodium - 65.4g carbs - 5.7g protein

STRAWBERRY BAKEWELL

Hi everyone

Sorry it's been a long time since my last post - we have had the dreaded lurgy and it's lasted longer than I would have wanted! I had to trade in my oven mits and measuring jug for tissues and Night Nurse but now I'm back to my usual self and ready as ever to get cookin'!

We had a family gathering on Sunday for UK Mother's Day. It was my first Mother's Day so I was super excited and wanted to make something special for the occasion. My Gran likes to keep recipes for me that she finds in newspapers and magazines so I usually come home after a visit with tons of new things to try. She gave me a recipe for a raspberry bakewell which looked amazing! I'm not a huge fan of raspberry to be honest, I find them a bit sour for a fruity dessert. My favourite is cherry however I can't find any! So strawberry it is.......

I have had to tweak the recipe slightly - not sure whether it was because I made it wrong or what but there wasn't enough cake mixture! I have put the recipe below for you with my added amounts as rather make too much than not enough and have to dirty your dishes again!

I hope you enjoy this. My family were under strict instructions to be brutally honest and they said it was delicious - I was not able to taste it myself as I had a blocked nose and literally couldn't taste anything :( I can say however, the texture was really nice! I wanted to get a nice picture of it sliced but there wasn't any time - sorry! As always, please feel free to comment and let me know how your baking went!

Tanya x

INGREDIENTS

220g butter, softened
220g golden caster sugar
220g self-raising flour
150g ground almonds
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 teaspoon strawberry jam
150g punnet strawberries, quartered
50g flaked almonds

METHOD

 Preheat the oven to 180 C / 160 C fan assisted / gas 4. Line a 22cm cake tin with baking parchment (or grease if you don't have baking parchment).

With a blender, or your hands, blend together the butter, sugar, flour, ground almonds, eggs and vanilla extract. This will make a thick cake mix (don't worry about it being too thick - I nearly had a heartattack when I saw mine!).

Spoon about 1/3 of the cake mix in the tin and spread to make the base. It doesn't have to be perfect, or thick, as long as the base is all covered. As the picture above, dot your teaspoons of jam all over the base of the cake - you can add as much as you want here but I found 8 teaspoons to be enough for us - then scatter your strawberries all over.

With the remaining cake mix, spoon it on top of your jam and strawberries. I found the best way was to drop dollops of the mixture on top of the jam and then use your fingers to spread it evenly across the top so it covers everything like the picture above. Don't worry about the cake not touching the very edges of the cake tin, once it is baked, it will take the cake tin shape.

Finally, spread some of your almonds on top on the mixture and then place in the oven for 40-45 minutes or until the top is golden brown as the picture shows below.

FINAL SAY

I found it best (and cheaper!) to buy 200g of flaked almonds and then measure out 150g and grind them yourself. You can do this using a pestle and mortar, or if you don't one like I don't, you can put them in a bowl with a cloth over the top and use your handheld blender to crush them up. They don't have to be perfectly ground!

I didn't have the chance to experiment with how to serve it unfortunately, I served mine at room temperature with nothing added to it. You could however, serve it warm and maybe with a dollop of whipped cream. Please let me know how it goes!

Makes: 12 big slices / 24 thin slices

Nutritional info: 1 big slice: 399 kcal - 39.2g carbs - 24.7g fat - 6.6g protein - 195.5mg sodium

QUICK AND EASY FAIRY CAKES

J absolutely loves fairy cakes and I think Tesco make their annual sales targets just from us. Tonight J has the man-flu so to make him feel better, I decided to try and bake some for him. I had no idea how easy they actually were! Sorry Tesco but there won't be anymore fairy cakes in our trolley!

I have used vegetable oil in this recipe rather than butter as I find oil keeps cakes moist and makes the top slightly crispy. I picked this tip up from my big sis and now I replace butter with oil for all my baking.

INGREDIENTS

125g vegetable oil
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
125g self-raising flour
2 tablespoons milk

METHOD

Preheat your oven to 190C / 325F / gas mark 5. Grease 12 cupcake cases.

In a mixing bowl, sieve the sugar and add in the oil. Next add the eggs, milk and finally the flour before stirring well. Spoon the mixture into your cupcake cases and place in the oven for 12 minutes or until risen and slightly golden on top.

It really is that simple.

FINAL SAY

The great thing about fairy cakes is you can ice and decorate them how you want. I made a glaze by mixing 1 tablespoon of icing sugar and 1 tablespoon of cold water then I drizzled a 1/4 tablespoon over each one. You can also make chocolate or strawberry butter icing or leave plain, it really is up to you!

You can also make chocolate fairy cakes by adding a tablespoon of cocoa powder to the mixture before spooning it into your cases.

Makes: 12 cupcake cases

Nutritional information per cupcake: 175kcal - 18g carbs - 11g fat - 2g protein - 11g sugar - 54mg sodium